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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!!!

Introduction Our very own Patriot Woodworker John Mordus, or better known in our circles as @honesttjohn, is an artist on CNC (computer numerical control) woodworking. John was one of the first CNC woodworkers to join our community and helped crowd our new CNC forums. One of John's favorite creations he performs on his CNC machine are the military plaques he enjoys carving. You can see his CNC gallery featuring these very plaques here at: John's Contribution John contacted us and asked us if we could use any of his work to benefit our current project for our Gold Star Widow Nicole Merlo. As you all know we are in the midst of raising funds for the Merlo Family. The carvings below are for sale. All the proceeds from the sale of these items will be used to purchase their Christmas meal for the family, which is a stipulation of our project as assigned to us by Operation Ward 57. Yes I know, 200 dollars is a good fair amount for a Christmas meal, but let's hope the Merlo Family will have a Christmas meal they will never forget! Perhaps they'll invite some friends over, perhaps they'll go a Prime Rib route in addition to the traditional Turkey and Ham. Whatever they decide to do, it will be memorable, and they can shop without worry for their memorable Christmas meal as provided by you, The Patriot Woodworker's. Each plaque has approximately 10 hours of glue up and carving labor into them. These are American Crafts of high quality and workmanship. (shipping will be paid by the TPW community, so that all 200 dollars will reach the Merlo Family) How to purchase Please leave a reply to this topic here if you wish to purchase one or both of these beautiful carvings. Keep in mind, these are also displayed throughout our Merlo Family project portals such as Facebook and Twitter, we reserve the right to sell these carvings outside of our Patriot Woodworker community, all here will be notified immediately if one or both carvings sell outside of our community before they sell here. In Closing We want to thank everyone who has contributed to this project with your raffle ticket purchases, your "getting out the word campaigns", just being here, and all your best wishes for the success of this years Christmas project. And we want to thank John Mordus for his material contribution to the project. You all have come through wonderfully this year, nothing more can be asked of you all, we have some big donors of treasure through our raffle, and we have had some very important smaller donors through our raffle, because even though they don't have much for themselves, they still managed to come up with a few extra dollars to help make a difference in a Gold Star widows Christmas. All contributions hold equal weight, we have all given what we can, and most importantly, it was all done with heart. We truly have the greatest and smallest woodworking community in the cyber world. After all, we are: The Few, The Proud, The Patriot Woodworkers! Thank you Patriot Woodworkers!

Had a lady who wanted a Xmas gift for her dad that could be handed down when the time came. He was very proud of serving his country as well as his Polish heritage. She wanted to incorporate it all as well as having the family name. I had to play with it for a while. The Marine emblem just didn't fit in with all the other components. This is what we agreed on, and she was very very happy when she picked it up. Ended up about 22 x 18 finished. She even tried to give me a generous tip, so she also got a camping sign to give as another gift.

This is an amazing piece of equipment but, I'm easily impressed. http://lumberjocks.com/mikeacg/blog/103346

Last week, I received my order of a little GearBest 1.6 w. Laser engraver. Friday, my son and I....actually my son and 12 Y.O. grandson...assembled it. I watched. My son is a robot tech and assembly was easy for him. I would still be arranging the parts. I left it at his house in Tucson and he's going to going to get it up and running. He's somewhat of an Arduino freak and wants to play around with getting the laser to interface with a Raspberry Pi instead of a computer. All, way above my pay grade. So, I guess I've stuck my toe .... barely... into the CNC world. My son is a busy guy so, it may be a while before we'll have an operational machine. But, I've got plenty of other toys to keep me out of trouble.

Been wanting to try making these and finally did. Took a couple of cut offs from Menards and made a thicker base Used one for the tops and there they are.

OK, I going to try and stimulate this section a little bit with a simple challenge. If you were to guide a complete newbie on what to get, how to configure it, best sources of equipment and prices, and what software to use, what would your advice be for that person starting out? Recognizing that this is a broad subject, in order to narrow it down a little, and provide some guidelines, consider that; it is for hobby shop use, cost/size should be best value for the price, ease of set-up, ease of programming (best software), etc. I think that this should cover it...you get the idea. Basically, a primer on how to get started for someone who wants to get involved in CNC type work. Let's see where this goes and eventually get a step by step guide available as a suggested guideline. Bill

Daughter went to Germany on business (and a stop at Oktoberfest) and needed a personalized gift for a recently married good friend that would travel easily in her carry on. Dear old Dad did it again. Cut from a 1" glued up pine panel from Lowes - about 12 x 12.

VCarve Training - Basic Fri, Sep 29, 2017 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM PDT - Overview of VCarve features - Introduction to CNC - Drafting - Toolpathing - Importing 2D and 3D work - Preparing the file for your CNC - Setting up tools - Q & A Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/365073373 You can also dial in using your phone. United States: +1 (872) 240-3212 Access Code: 365-073-373 First GoToMeeting? Try a test session: https://care.citrixonline.com/g2m/getready VCarve Training Free Sessions Dates: (sessions are scheduled on every last friday of the month unless otherwise noted) 9/29, 10/27, 11/17*, 12/29, 1/26, 2/23, 3/30, 4/27 and 5/25

Few things the CNC put out lately

My wife has a co-worker who had the bright idea to have a family tree carved for his 80 yr old father's birthday. So she volunteered me to do it, without asking, I might add. Only it had to be designed, cut, finished, and shipped to OK in less than a week. I did the first design and cut, didn't like it, so I did a second tree with the names carved in it and didn't like the way the text painted. Didn't look good, especially for a special gift. The tree actually had too much detail in it and the carved text just didn't work. If it doesn't look right, it doesn't get past the fire pit. I had to go a different direction but it involved a whole new design file with different platform depths (thanx MEBCWD for the idea) which would take more time that I didn't have. So, on to plan C. Cut it Suday morning, managed to go to a social function (she had it planned for weeks - had to go) Sunday afternoon, finished the text and profile cut when we got back home Sunday nite (late - but didn't plan to stay that long ........ riiiiight), painted the text with acrylic, let it dry, sanded it all out, and used spray lacquer (4 coats) since poly took too long to dry between coats. Had it ready for her to take in Monday morning. She said he was satisfied and understood why the other one didn't work. I think I paid to do this one, but ........... I learned a few things, including how catnaps on the couch don't take the place of sleeping in one's own bed. The tree was the same one I tried to carve and finish names in, only about 4 times bigger.

A while back I got a set of plans for a kids rocking dinosaur. It was printed on both sides of a large piece of paper and folded like a road map. The parts were "traceable" as advertised, BUT large pieces of carbon paper were required and the various parts had lines that crisscrossed each other all over the place. To keep the original plans I tried making a copy but that turned out to be a mess. Then I got a bright idea and sent it off to MEBCWD to see if he could work his magic and turn it into a CNC file. He emailed me a file back that showed up like this. Mike is good with Aspire. He's even better than good, and ...... reasonable. $$ well spent. Got busy cutting parts out of 1" panels and 2 x 12's Parts are cut out!!! I took the edge off the exposed edges with a round over bit and did a little (very little) sanding. The rockers were just mirrored, so they were exactly alike. A cut up piece of 1 x4 and the platform was made. Now the big test. Will the parts all go together. So far so good! A couple of minor adjustments and the dino fit on the platform. There's 2 - 2 1/2 " construction screws in each foot driven in from the bottom. Mixed up some Rustoleum Hunter Green and Gloss White paint and made a mess. You can saw a wooden ball in half and make fancy eyes or cheat like I did and go to Michaels. The mouth is just painted on. It could be Vcarved if you wanted to do the two sided carving step. Advantage of using the CNC --- all the parts are as exact as you need for assembly. The band saw was never turned on. Each part is exactly the same allowing you to make 3-4-5 units at a time. Or, as many as desired, even if it's just one. Sanding is minimal. More on the finishing surface than the edges. Once you have a file on a thumb drive, you save it and bring it out whenever needed.

I originally posted this on Vectric's forum, but as it makes sense to post under this topic I'm sharing it here again. Sometimes a part that needs a little CNC work done on it is too small for any conventional bed clamp to hold down. I have used my drill press table vise on occasion, but it is rather tall. More useful on my CNC shark which has better Z clearance than my Probotix Meteor. Most wood vise parts are 1/2" BB plywood and cut out on my CNC. One small part on the bottom was a thinner piece of scrap plywood. I spaced the holes out so the vise would slide into 2 tracks of my CNC bed. Discovered by accident that the hole spacing also works in the solid t-track bed of my CNC Shark. Apologies for the B&W images. Accidently had the wrong setting set in my photo software. The 3/8" x 16 threaded rod pushes against a 5/16" vertical aluminum post embedded int the front vise jaw. Keeps the jaw from spitting. No handle designed for it yet. I turn two nuts jammed together on the end with a box end wrench. 4D

I was perusing the Laguna Tools CNC customer stories and came upon this pretty awesome business, they build wooden mountain bikes, here is the Laguna page at https://lagunatools.com/customer-stories/savvy-cycles-wood-on-wheels/ Link to Savvy Cycles http://www.savvy-cycles.com/bikes.html The projects you can create by CNC are vast and endless it seems, how cool is that!

You've read about these guys buying all these CNC parts and building their machines over several months, setting all the coded parameters with numbers and symbols that mean nothing to us common folk, limit distances, gantry whatevers, and a whole bunch of other technical stuff that is basically very daunting and downright scary. Doesn't have to be that way. Here's how a retired trucker (me) did it. First you open the crate and put the machine on the table you already have ready. Instead of the MDF bed that comes with it -- lay some T-slot from a place like 8020 for easier clamping - - holding the work piece in place with no movement is a must - that's about as hands on as I got doing my "build". Connect the wires to the controller, computer, and monitor Gotta buy a few bits Then you make a design using a good software program - I use Aspire And you're ready to make a little dust And then you get enough nerve to try carving While the others are figuring out whether part XR-145-06214 is compatible with part ZM-34875640 you're on the way!!!!! That's my way of doing a build. Never could figure out how that assembling and programming part by part was done. More power to those guys, but it's above my head. Why I did it this way? One of the head designers at my wife's plant (their machines are $100k up) was building his own at home and told me point blank - "If you can afford to buy a ready made one - do it!"