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A friend of my was recently redoing a bartop in his man cave and ask me to do some CNC work on the slab he was going to use. The slab was 10’ long, 27” wide and 2” thick. This was one big slab to slide into my CNC. Since there was no straight edge I had to establish some type of straight line to be able to line up the three images he wanted cut into the slab. With a center set, I could then line up the different images on the center line to start the milling. First up was “Blue Blood” on the left side. Then slide this monster through the machine to center the next part. And then one one more move to put the last image into the slab. I used vCarve Desktop to do each section. A screen shot shot of the wild cat. So so he was going to pour Blue Epoxy in each of the images and sand it flat then pour self leveling clear Epoxy over the whole top. He sent me a video of the finished bar top. I did a screenshot so excuse the play button in the middle of the picture. Turned out really nice, he should enjoy this for a long time.

I had a request for a mountain scene cutting board, laser engraved with names and wedding date. I've done a few of these and they come out looking nice but I doubt one ever gets used for anything exception kitchen art! I drew the original design in CorelDraw where I exported it as an svg to bring into Fusion 360. From there I did the CAD/CAM work to cut the Maple, Walnut, and Cherry. These pieces are about 3/8" thick and the backer board is about 7/8" thick. Everything is glued with TB III and the feet are silicone with SS screws and washers, so everything is FDA approved. After cutting the mountain scene and gluing it to the backer board it goes to the table saw for trimming to size and then to the router table for rounding the edge. I do the names and date in CorelDraw and take that file to the laser shop for engraving. That way they don't have to do anything except load the file and start the laser machine. It's finished in mineral oil with Beeswax (our own mix), even though it'll probably just be eye candy for the kitchen. Sky, mountain, foreground blanks; I picked Walnut with some sapwood to look like snowcapped and some in the foreground - Blanks glued - Blanks glued to backer board - Engraving in the laser - Finished cutting board - Enjoy! David

Practice inlay piece to test technique for a larger project. This is Walnut, African Mahogany, and Cherry. It’s 12” x 6”. Pockets and inlay pieces were drawn freehand in Fusion 360, cut on the CNC, then each piece hand filed and fitted. Leaf veins were cut by hand, as well. Finish is 2 lb. cut Shellac and applied with French polish method. Veins are highlighted with Mohawk Van Dyke Brown glazing stain. Finish took about 20 minutes from bare wood. Enjoy! David

I grabbed this photo off our Pastor's FB page and will give this to him tomorrow at church, so he doesn't know I did this for him. This is a photo V carve that I did in Carveco and cut into Maple, about 6" x 11". I used a 60° V bit from Amana and this is my first time to use their bits. This one cut extremely well, btw! Absolutely no tear out on the carving and very clean across the entire board. The finish is my fairly standard for this type of work - Nitrocellulose sanding sealer, Mohawk Van Dyke Brown glazing stain, followed by a coat of semi-gloss lacquer. As is the case with most things, there is a proper viewing distance. The closer you get the less this looks good, but viewed at arm distance or even a little further it looks really good. My iPhone tries to do facial recognition on each face, kinda cool, I think! Close shot - Proper viewing distance - Enjoy! David

A friend asked if I could make a finger labyrinth for his son. I grabbed a photo off the Internet, did some modifications, and cut this out of Maple for him. It's about 11.5" diameter and finished in Nitrocellulose lacquer. David

Light production, as in 4 from one board, but I think they came out nice. At least they came out like I wanted, anyway. The finish is Nitrocellulose sanding sealer followed by gloss lacquer, then Mohawk glazing stain, final finish is semi-gloss lacquer. These are 9" x 11.25" and the board is the Pine/Spruce/Fir glued up boards they have at Lowe's. David

This was just a test piece to make sure my file on the CNC was correct, so I grabbed some 1/2" BB before running this on more expensive Maple. Now that I have cut and finished it I may not make another one, not sure yet. I'll give this one to a friend who's on the front line fighting the virus. David

I have wanted to cut something like this for a while and this looked like a good project to test in Carveco. I knew the cutting would be fairly straight forward but was unsure how long it would take because I haven't calibrated this type of cutting in Carveco. The material is 1/2" MDF and it took 40 minutes cutting at 200 ipm, one pass with a 60° 5/8" diameter V bit, 18k rpm, 0.03125" stepover, and cut depth of 3/16". Except for the perimeter cuts it rarely got close to 200 ipm. I probably could have set it to 400 ipm and the results would have been about the same. My goal was to make it look old, somewhat weathered, like it had been discovered in the sand on Tatooine and had been there for years. In other words, 'pristine and perfect' was NOT my goal. The finishing steps were as follows - 1) two fairly heavy coats of Nitrocellulose sanding sealer, 2) one really heavy coat of Rust Oleum brown Hammered paint, 3) brushed thinned black acrylic into the recessed areas and wiped it off, 4) placed in oven at 170° for a couple of minutes and turned off but allowed the piece to stay in until the oven cooled, and 5) one good coat of Nitrocellulose semi-gloss followed quickly by a lighter dusting coat. The lacquer caused the underlying coats to crackle a bit and gave me the desired look, at least I am pleased with the way it came out. On the CNC - Two coats of sealer - Brown Hammered paint - After black acrylic and wiped off - Aged look - Aged look close up - Enjoy! David

Today was actually a nice day in the shop. I had time to sit down with my CNC and vCarve Desktop to work on some 1911 grips. I’ve been using my Remington R1 as my test fit piece. These were cut cut but I did t get them sanded and a finish put on them today. I guess I can work on that tomorrow afternoon. mahogany on the top, Purple Heart and Leopard wood on the right. These are all cut from G10 material. Slate color G10 cut with a checking pattern A nice fit on my 1911. Slate G10 Stripes with Mag release cut out. Red and Black G10 with Dots. I sanded this with micro sanding paper then buffed it on my 3 wheel buffer. Nice look. Each set gives the 1911 a total different look. I’ve got to get a few more cut tomorrow. It’s back to work at the Gun Store Monday.

I'm not a CNC user. Just passing along this link. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMrMqMabXS5_cFcq5K9Ob-w

I've got a closet in my spare bedroom (storage room) that I wanted to add another clothes hanger rod to. Among my scrap pieces I had two 1.25" diameter closet rod sections that together would be long enough, but neither was long enough on their own. The distance to span is roughly 22". This is a CNC-cut splice joint I came up with to solve the problem. Test cut on smaller scraps shown in the photos. I'm calling it my radial finger joint. Finished spliced rod now loaded with clothes and seems to be able to handle the weight with no complaint. If it does fail eventually I'll report back. 4D

After reading @Steve Krumanaker blog on his laser, it has interested me greatly, but on the cnc router level. But Steve's blog really got me thinking on this. Been looking at CNC Router home made plans and there is a whole community out there for this type of do-it-yourself and they are very supportive of one another, very open source, free plans, open source software, and just a neat community altogether. Thanks Steve for showing me.

The cause As you know we had a wonderful project that spanned from the beginning of December to the end of the year of 2018 that involved the Bassett Family who was assigned to our community by Operation Ward 57. You can see the project at: The Patriot Woodworkers with Op Ward 57 Adopt a Wounded Warrior Family for the Holidays - 2018 The donation We have a woodworker and his wife, @honesttjohn and Mrs. Mordus who for the past two years have shipped us some wonderful gifts for the families we support through our annual Christmas project. I always enjoy what the Mordus's ship us for the intended family of honor. You can see the Mordus's efforts last year at this link: This year was no different. We were contacted by John and he asked, "What can we do". He laid out some suggestions and just like last year, he quickly jumped into action and produced some lovely gifts for the family, and the Mordus's also threw in some Amazon gift cards for the boys as well! I'd like to show off what Mr. and Mrs. Mordus sent for the family, just like last year when I opened up the box to inspect the items and to have our kids wrap them in Christmas paper for delivery, I was deeply touched by what was in the box. I am a huge fan of anything hand made, obviously, as we all are! And I am a huge admirer of hand made clothing and blankets and such, and again, Mrs. Mordus came through with a beautiful blanket made by her own hand for the family. The blanket work is fine and beautiful The Mordus gifts, the beautiful family blanket laying over a chair, with plaques for mom and dad made by John, and two boxes with gift cards for the boys. After reading the family introduction at our project page for the Bassett's, John Mordus was struck with the continued service that Mrs. Bassett performs around the community, and throughout our nation to better the challenging conditions that surround our disabled veterans. Mrs. Bassett is the Nevada State Fellow for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and she travels to Washington to advocate for our veterans. John made a very appropriate honor for her. John also read that Dad Bassett loves to work in his garage, specifically automotive mechanics. So John made up a fun dedication to Mr. Bassett's man cave. Our kids wrapped them up and sent them off to the Bassett's, just in time for Christmas. Christmas morning The Bassett's and the Mordus gifts Christmas morning, they all loved them @honesttjohn! Mr. Bassett and subject of honor for our Christmas Project with his sign, "Pop's Shop"! Look at that smile! From what I understand Mrs. Bassett loved her gift very much as well, but was probably a bit shy to be in the camera at that time of the morning, you all know how females get first thing in the morn! Mr. and Mrs. Mordus, thank you once again for your help in yet another year with our Adopt a Wounded Warrior Family for Christmas project. You truly do help make this event a special one, with the personal touch to the families. Now I know what is going to happen next, Honestjohn is going to send me a PM saying, "you really didn't have to make a big deal out of this", well, sorry John, yes I did! Thank you!

The CNC forum has moved to The Woodworking Discussion Forum. It is now a sub forum similar to General Woodworking, Turners, etc. Thank you!

Back in April, my wife's cousin was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer. Subsequent testing indicated it had moved into his liver, and there were blood clots. His family and friends organized a benefit for him that was held yesterday. Sadly, Dwight passed away last Saturday morning. He had a lot of friends and they turned out in droves for the benefit. At last count, the live auction had raised over $47K...and almost $4K for the silent auction. BBQ plates - yes many were sold at $10 each. 450 went out to area businesses on Friday, and probably about that many more at the benefit. I contributed to the silent auction by making a sign with the Jack Daniels logo carved into it. As far as I know, it is a one of a kind. It turned out pretty nice and drew a lot of attention. Thirteen bids in all, and yes, some were repeat bidders. My wife said she noticed one lady that kept walking over to check out the latest bid. We think she may have been the eventual high bidder. And the good part is it sold for $240. That made me really happy. But in all honesty, I think it would have sold for more in the live auction, but that wasn't my decision. There were some deep pockets in the crowd. Here are some pictures of the construction and the auction. It was one of my first efforts with the new CNC. It took me longer to design the project than it did to carve it. RIP Dwight Cahanin. Mike

I need to replicate one part several times. It's 5.5" X 2" X 3/4". Material just needs to be fairly rigid, as in mdf or mdo. If you're interested, shoot me a PM. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Unbelievable

Since this is a forum with a heavy emphasis on patriotism I figured we should have something for those who served in the military. These are the first two I tried. Was also thinking of possibly combining something like this with a bottom "tail" that could be carved with someone's name, dates of service, places of service, or anything one would want. These are cut from 15" blanks. Sizes can be increased to 18 or even 24 inch I would think.

Not sure if CNC er is a proper word. My name is Scott, I go by Scottart on most forums. I have been a carver for about 40 years. I say carver and not just wood carver as I also have spent some considerable time carving snow and Ice.. We won the national snow carving competition 3 times and have won a number of ice carving events. I also spend a lot of time chainsaw carving and as a result have way to many chainsaws, die grinders, angle grinders, and small dremel like devises by the box load. My wife and I raised 4 kids. the oldest did 9 years in the Marine Corp so we have a strong affection for the members of the services. While I worked a corporate career, we always had a small business selling my art, carvings, paintings, pyrography and in 2012 we opened up a 3000 sft art gallery on the Parks HIghway in WIllow, Alaska. Willow creek Studio. We have about 60 local artists there, and make all kinds of man cave stuff. log furniture, cabin signs, benches and signs for lodges, and just plain old chainsaw carvings and quite a bit of carved relief panels and doors. The CNC is a major part of our business and the largest single contributor to our income stream. I am currently retiring at 61. the Cnc and the gallery are allowing us to transition to retirement about 5 years ahead of prior schedule. So I am a believer in using the cnc to make money... albeit, our investment is significant with 40 years of marketing behind me, years of exposure as and artist, and a gallery on the major highway in Alaska all combine to make it possible. I use Aspire to create almost all of my models. I occasionally sell some of the models and also just donate a few. Each year we set a side some time to donate some projects for some worthy local military groups. Last year it was a memorial for Vietnam era bomber squadron reunion, and currently I am working on a big wall piece for a returning battalion of Air Cavalry troops. I enjoy helping and learning in these blogs..... feel free to contact me any time. www.scottthompsonart. https://www.facebook.com/WillowCreekGallery/?ref=bookmarks tundrafish1@yahoo.com

I think this is fitting for just about anyone here. Carved from an oddball piece of 16 x 10 cut off aspen.

Jay Skelton sent me to Menards and said to get some of these. They are corian, quartz, acrylic (?) pieces that measure about 11.5 inches square. Polish festivals are coming up. Can be used as a trivet, display, or cutting board for serving things like cheese or dips or whatever.

Had an order for 3 buffalo nickel banks. Since they do involve a lot of time and finishing I decided to make a few extra while I had everything all set up for each stage. Each one (funny how it worked out this way - must be the magic resizing feature of Aspire) was cut from a single 1 x 12 x 48 Baltic birch glued up board that was on sale at Menards earlier. Not as good as David Falkner's videos, but you people are smart and can put it all together. Started by cutting the inside spacers for the $$ and the pieces for the cradles. Then each side of the "coin" had to be cut. This gave us all the pieces necessary for each bank. Some glue, clamps, and a little cussing gave us the rough banks - ready for sanding and filling where necessary. The two piece cradles lined up nicely, and a little time with the Ridgid oscillating belt sander (this is a life saver - $199 well spent) we were ready to finish. A couple coats of Rustoleum aluminum metallic paint (this is some great stuff), two screws through the bottom and we have finished pieces. The nice thing about the CNC is the same file is used over and over. Everything lined up regardless of what pieces were used.

Had a lady who wanted a world map carved wall hanging. Found a jpeg pic online and had MEBCWD turn it into a file the machine would carve. Measures 45 x 24. Staining went pretty good but the black painting sucked! Gotta be a better way. Now I know why they cost so much!! But, I can now use this file to make most any size desired and can add any text wanted.

The cause As you know we had a wonderful project that spanned from October to the end of the year of 2017 that involved the Gold Star widow and her two children as assigned to our community by Operation Ward 57. You can see the project at: The Patriot Woodworkers with Op Ward 57 Adopt a Gold Star Family for the Holidays - 2017 The donation During the project we witnessed many forms of heart felt giving, from the actual raffle ticket purchases, to the exchanging of the winnings from one member to another. Every step of the way, everyone who participated in this project performed heroically, I want to thank everyone once again for their giving, and participation in this very important annual tradition of ours. Thank you! Sometimes, things happen in these projects that are, well, just pretty danged cool, and one of those things was the shipment I received from Patriot Woodworker @honesttjohn. The shipment contained one blanket for each member of the Merlo Family. These blankets were hand made by Mrs. Mordus, (spouse of John Mordus aka honestjohn). John informed me the items were on their way, and I was expecting them, but what I was not expecting was the handwork that went into this operation. My own mother is a crocheter, I grew up with the craft, so I understand the time and heart that goes into this craft, the blankets of Mrs. Mordus were knitted. I am showing images of the work the night before we shipped the gifts from our home to the Merlo Family. I want to apologize for the image quality, it was late, the lights were dim in our home, shortly after I took these pictures our kids wrapped each blanket individually and put a name tag on the gifts before we put them in the shipping box for delivery the next day. This knitted blanket was made for Mrs. Merlo, the knitting is exquisite and detailed, can you imagine spending the time that it takes to make every single tiny square and creating those squares methodically around each heart. I had a chance to feel this blanket, it was very soft, and it had considerable heft to it as well, I was tempted to wrap myself in it but my heart said no, the first wrap should be performed by the honored recipient, Mrs. Merlo. Look at those tiny knitted stitches The hearts The following are images of the blankets Mrs. Mordus created for the children, Camilla and Charlie, the baseballs went to the boy, and the butterflies went to the girl. Mrs. Mordus crafted a border around the fleece fabric of both blankets. This is a style of making blankets that my own mother has been wanting to do for sometime now, mom was over at this time, and she closely examined the borders to see how Mrs. Mordus fabricated them. I wish I had taken close up images of the borders, I don't know why I did not. At this writing I am right now kicking myself. Camilla's flutterby blanket Charlie is a baseball fanatic! And of course, do you think @honesttjohn could let that box of blankets ship without something from the shop! John installed a completely wonderful keepsake box for Mrs. Merlo that he created. This was unexpected, a beautiful touch to an already incredible shipment for the Merlo Family. I am not sure what the box was made from, it may have been John's trademark Pine that he uses in many of his plaque projects, hopefully John will chime in here and let us know. And the grand finale, the Merlo kids with their warm blankets on Christmas morning. You can tell they are very happy. We do not have an image of Mrs. Merlo with her blanket, it was not provided, but I can surmise why we do not have that image, well you know how ladies are, early in the morning, just out of the rack, hair not straight yet, I am sure the image is out there, but Mrs. Merlo surely wasn't going to let that one get out! Without further adieu, the kids Charlie and Camilla and their cherished blankets. (these images shown here, with permission given by mom Merlo) Little Camilla showing off mama's blanket In closing Again, I want to thank everyone who was involved in this project, it was a huge success this year thanks to you all. And on behalf of our entire Patriot Woodworker community, Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Mordus for this very special gift, that will keep on giving to this family for years to come, as they curl up during cold season with these blankets. This topic is long over due, and I want to also apologize to @honesttjohn for taking so long to get this up and live, thanks for your patience John.

Had an order for 30+ backers that a brass plate would affix to. I never made 30 of anything before so it was a learning experience. This is what they had to look like. Of course, that's not a shape included with Aspire so a quick email entitled "Help" was sent to MEBCWD. Once the file was made (rather easily and quickly) I cut a 4' - 1 x 12 poplar glued up board from Menards in half, put the two pieces together, let the program copy and line up the rows and columns with it's array copy feature. Saved the file and hit go. Repeated the process 3 times and we had 36 identical plaques. Could have done it in two cuts of 18 each but was unsure of the layout so I chose to do it in 3 cuts. Cut the tabs and popped them out. Ready to sand and finish. Stained and polyed ready to ship!!!