I had someone ask me to do an inlay cutting board. It has some tight tolerances that I thought would be no problem. The mill up of the walnut cutting board and female inlays went without issue. On the male plug the carves were horrible. I did all the maintenance and tightened any bolt that was but still looked like a 5 year old drew it up. Then trying to clean up a bad inlay the Z gantry dropped and gouged the crap out of the board. Luckily I made it 2.25 thick. I broke out a 1/4 end mill and resurfaced the board down. Milled out two more inlays and none fit. Was thinking of changing to epoxy inlay. Ended calling a friend who has a Shark 510. I kindly let me use his machine, even with the same bits the inlays came out perfect. All the project needs now is a good coat of Walrus wax when I get back home and send it to its new home.

 

I’ll be happy when my new CNC comes next month, but also sometimes I need to get back to the basics. So I am going back to circles triangle and squares lol. Below are a few pictures of the journey. The only word that comes to mind with this build is perseverance and don’t give up.
 

 

Edited December 4, 20232 yr by KevTN
To finish

 

Thanks for sharing your challenges, problems as well as solutions Kevin. Sorry you had the trouble. BTW, great save. It turned out great.

Nice outcome Kevin.  As for machine glitches even the professional industrial machines can surprise the operators occasionally.  I agree with Grandpadave42 about a great save.  Right now my CNC is suffering from a Linux PC that suddenly won't boot up.  I may have to dig my old CNC Shark out of the garage to satisfy my CNC needs.  It predates my Probotix CNC by a couple years, but at least the PC running it still works.  

Thanks guys!  Hey it gave me reason to get a new and better CNC with wife!! lol.  
 

thanks for the kind words.

4D I’m sorry to hear of the computer issues. Were you able to save your files?

2 minutes ago, KevTN said:

4D I’m sorry to hear of the computer issues. Were you able to save your files?

The linuxPC is the controller for my Probotix CNC.  The only files on it were cut files (g-code) from previous projects.  Probotix wants more than $1k for a replacement, but I can source a new motherboard for under $200, and download the OS with linuxCNC installed for free from their wiki.  I'll just need to configure it for my specific CNC.  Not in a rush though as my newish pickup truck has me distracted.  Just installed side steps on it.  A bed liner is on the way. Carpet inserts for the front plastic floor should follow.  The truck has an extended cab but didn't come with jump seats.  The floor is irregular and not practical for use as storage area so I'll likely make a plywood insert to level it off.  Can't find anything similar on the web to just buy, but that may be due to me not knowing how to describe such a thing to Google.  

1 hour ago, KevTN said:

Hey it gave me reason to get a new and better CNC with wife!! lol.  

Wait a minute. You got a new CNC that came with a new wife? 

I hope so so I don’t have hear her complain when something doesn’t work out and I need to buy more wood. Ie I don’t hear her complain! That would be new for me! 😉

22 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

The floor is irregular and not practical for use as storage area so I'll likely make a plywood insert to level it off.

 

When I bought my Nissan it did have the jump seats in the rear.  Not sure who they might fit, or what use they could be   They took up a lot of space that is much more useful now.

I got a few ideas from the Frontier forum and gave a go at reforming that area to something useful.  Here are a few pics of what I did.  And while I was at it I added a bit more insulation - especially behind that rear panel.  I cannot say that it did much for road noise, wish I could...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you found a Chevy Colorado forum yet?  Probably get some good ideas there for all sorts of useful (or not) mods to make.  I had fun doing this mod and it is very useful having a flat platform and the storage below it.  All of the plywood was recycled material and the insulation I added was left over from other projects.  All I bought for this project was the carpet, hardware and a small roll of iron on vinyl.

Edited December 8, 20232 yr by Cal

My former truck was a 1980 Nissan hardbody King Cab with jump seats that folded down from the sides rather than the back.  In those days I had young nieces and nephews that lived nearby and they loved to get a ride in the back.  Of course there were no back doors which is why modern trucks have the jump seats hanging on the back wall.  Loved that truck and it served me well for 15+ years. 

Haven't looked for a Chevy Colorado forum. May do that.   Love your platform storage solution. That's pretty much what I plan to do with the back area on mine. Low priority right now and bitter cold in my garage right now, so I'll likely put that off until spring. 

4D

It's interesting that this topic just came up. My wife and I were in Southern Italy this fall and came across a guy that did free-hand router work, while you waited/watched, producing bread stamps for the town. Here's the stamp that he did for my wife. He did this free-hand, with a small router, on the end. I've got a video of the process if anyone's interested. Cost was 18 Euros and it was done in cherry.

19 minutes ago, FrederickH said:

It's interesting that this topic just came up. My wife and I were in Southern Italy this fall and came across a guy that did free-hand router work, while you waited/watched, producing bread stamps for the town. Here's the stamp that he did for my wife. He did this free-hand, with a small router, on the end. I've got a video of the process if anyone's interested. Cost was 18 Euros and it was done in cherry.

I remember seeing a man make custom name signs for visitors at a woodworking/craft show held in my local city park. Hand held router with a V-bit,  He would pencil out the name on the board, then with both elbows braced he would pivot the bit in and out as he followed the drawing to produce what today look like V-carved text using a CNC. He may have had a custom shallow domed baseplate on the router he used. 

When I taught furniture design there were often good excuses to get out small trim router to hand manipulate the router cleaning out a hinge mortise or similar detail for the students.  I suspect I could duplicate what that bread stamp carver did if I had an interest to. A hand held router was the first power tool I owned, and learning/understanding the forces it created moving a bit through wood led me to doing many unexpected router cuts for students who needed "impossible" help.  Mastering the use of a router many years before I had a CNC made it fairly easy for me to understand and master what could be done with a CNC. 

4D

Edited December 8, 20232 yr by 4DThinker

"He would pencil out the name on the board, then with both elbows braced he would pivot the bit in and out as he followed the drawing to produce what today look like V-carved text using a CNC."

 

This guy made a point that nothing was marked out but done free-hand without a template. Which he did!

5 hours ago, FrederickH said:

It's interesting that this topic just came up. My wife and I were in Southern Italy this fall and came across a guy that did free-hand router work, while you waited/watched, producing bread stamps for the town. Here's the stamp that he did for my wife. He did this free-hand, with a small router, on the end. I've got a video of the process if anyone's interested. Cost was 18 Euros and it was done in cherry.

That is pretty cool!

On 12/8/2023 at 2:11 PM, FrederickH said:

... it was done in cherry.

 

 

That's European beech, not cherry.  I used to teach my students to identify 50 wood samples.  Trick to remembering beech is the that the flecks look like sand on the beach.  I still have 50 sample blocks, each of a different wood from when I took the class I ended up teaching.  Sadly many are no longer available in the states. 

4D

1 hour ago, 4DThinker said:

That's European beech, not cherry.  I used to teach my students to identify 50 wood samples.  Trick to remembering beech is the that the flecks look like sand on the beach.  I still have 50 sample blocks, each of a different wood from when I took the class I ended up teaching.  Sadly many are no longer available in the states. 

4D

Thanks for the information. We were told cherry wood but you're correct about it being beech. I can't tell you the last time that I held a piece of beech wood(except for picking up dead limbs/twigs). We do have a massive European Beech tree in our yard!!

Here's a photo of our European Beech tree, that's in our yard, and was planted in 1953.

Beautiful tree Frederick.  What is the red intermixed in there, and what is it's fall color?  Is the bark smooth like it's American cousin?

10 minutes ago, Cal said:

Beautiful tree Frederick.  What is the red intermixed in there, and what is it's fall color?  Is the bark smooth like it's American cousin?

Cal, this was taken last year in the fall. The red areas are clumps of end leaves that had turned red. They reminded me of Christmas ornaments on the tree. The bark is smooth. Eventually, there will be a mix of yellow and some red. This year, the tree dropped most of its leaves in one afternoon.