Pet Grave Marker

[harryball]

My Father's beloved companion dog died a couple of days ago. I would like to make a grave marker and I'm looking for ideas on good materials and suggestions or links to carving information.

A simple Vcarve is fine. I think I have some slate, I could get a marble tile, I have some other kind of rock that is slate like. I could make a mold and pour cement etc...

Any suggestions on what would carve well (easy) and hold up outdoors?

I am searching the forums and finding details. Just thought I'd post here to get 2 more cents worth and maybe a photo here or there.

Thanks,
/RB

[jseiler]

Corian?

[rcnewcomb]

I've done shallow carving in slate (0.1") and it worked well. It was fairly flat.

Marble tile carves nice.

For any of the stone start with a feed rate around 0.5-1.0 ips. Don't try to go too deep on a single pass. No more than 0.125" per pass.

[billp]

Robert,
As Randy points out marble would be a good choice. Here is a shot I've shown at numerous Camps where I took a piece of marble "door sill" from the Depot, and made a pet memorial with it. They will cut the sill to size for you, then you just run the V carved
tool path and paint the lettering.
2295

[gene]

Bill,
What were the settings for this marker?
The feed , speed and depth of cut Please . One of my pets is on her last legs and not doing good at all. I will need to do one soon and i am not looking forward to it at all. I guess its all part of life. What cutter did you use also. Thanks

[billp]

Gene,
I'll have to give a rough guess, as I cut this about 7 years ago....I used to cut marble cleanly at about 2IPS. I probably could have gone faster, but didn't have the need to. Initially I did ALL marble cuts in 3 passes, but after awhile I found out that if I kept the move speed low, and the router/spindle near 10,000 rpm, I could do fine with one, or two passes.
Obviously all marble is not the same density, etc. so there's always going to be a localized "fudge factor", but I always found it (going a little slower) to work out well since the final effects were usually so surprising to people that taking a few extra minutes of cut time was well worth it...
Marble doesn't need anything other than a good carbide router bit. Once you get through the shiny surface the underside is limestone.....I have cut both with, and without water. If you just "paint"some water over your first scribed pass, it will soak into the material, make the cut quieter, and minimize the dust.
Too much water will also throw too much water/slurry all over your table, (and that slurry will stick to your table like epoxy...).So cut back on the water, OR use a piece of plastic sheeting around your table.
A great place to find good marble pieces to cut is in the catalogs the laser guys get in their mailboxes...

[ghostcreek]

I believe one of our Botters makes Pet memorials. Glen P. at http://www.cutncarve.ca
Cool site, check it out. On thread, is this a special router bit to cut this Marble material?

[bcammack]

Cheer up, Gene. I know (probably as well as anyone can) the emotional bond we have with our pets. It's easier than doing one for a two-legged loved one.

I did one in granite for my mother-in-law a couple years ago. No, I didn't use the ShopBot.
Used an off-cut of 3cm Black Absolute, a 6mm diamond ball-nose bit, and an Omag4xMill stone router. About 24" high and 30" wide, as I recall. Her family loved it.

[billp]

Michael,
A standard carbide bit is fine. Obviously you wouldn't want to do a fast Z plunge with a small V bit, but you could use the same bits you'd run in hardwood.
Another option for that fine detailing is the diamond drag engraving bit- http://www.shopbottools.com/spindles.htm
This would let you do really fine work on the surface!

[harryball]

Brett... how did you know we had a 2 legged dog? (Sorry... I know but I couldn't resist)

I think I have the diamond engraving bit... didn't occur to me to actually use it for something. I'll take a look... maybe it was the vinyl cutter I bought... oh well, I should probably find a use for it too.

Thanks guys, this gives me something to go on. I'll post pictures of whatever I end up with.

/RB

[bob_dodd]

Robert This is something I made for our family dog. Its made from sign foam 2 1/2" pcs gluded up , then a pocket for the relief of dog , the letters were laser cut mirrored acrylic , it was sprayed with textured stone spray paint from the Depot . Just another idea
2296