bought a nice maple slab

[lex]

And left the edges the way they came.
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28031&stc=1http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28030&stc=1

[cowboy1296]

wow, that is one heck of a carving

[myxpykalix]

I'm always amazed at how you guys can find pieces of wood with such nice carvings hidden inside of them! Excellent work....

oh BTW...finally I see someone who has a workbench just as cluttered up as mine!!!

[KLWestfall]

finally I see someone who has a workbench just as cluttered up as mine!!!

Though it had been cleaned up for the picture - that's what I would have to do!

[James M]

That's a very nice carving. How many hours did it take you to carve it? Just curious.

J

[dmidkiff]

Nice slab and excellent carving.

[scottp55]

Just curious Lex if you flattened the backside before carving, or shimmed it before clamping?
Wonderful job! :)
scott

[lex]

Professionals do the flattening and shimming stuff. Me; I just screw it down to the bed.

[lex]

Carving time is hard to determine exactly. I ran the first carve with a 1/4" ball nose and it ran from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday evening. I wasn't happy with it so ran it again with a 1/16" ball nose and it went from Friday afternoon till Sunday night.
The real time was spent with the Dremel cleaning it all up. The slab was supposed to be hardwood but it sure had a lot of fuzzies.

My "shop" is a detached garage behind my house so I don't have a problem with it running all night. (Except the wife complaining about the spindle sound) Well and the room. I really should get a smaller machine.

Sad to say that my bench cleaning process was to push everything to one end when I took the slab off the machine. Hate to admit that is my normal method.

[cowboy1296]

I cut a piece in western red cedar this past week expecting fuzzies from hell and got none. i have cut black walnut and gotten fuzzies from hell and then on other occasions none. i am getting to the point that i think that it is the board and not the species.

I am assuming that you know how to tell which bit to use while doing your previewing?

[lex]

No clue at all on the preview. I am a newbie that just fumbles through as best I can. In fact when people say "feed and speeds" I can understand what they mean but no idea on making them. The machine runs at whatever it is running at and the inverter is set to what I think is about 12,000 RPM. (It is in Hrtz)

[cowboy1296]

trust me i aint the smartest tack on the block and am only repeating what i have been told, what i use and it does work.

First calculate your tool path with the larger bit and click preview. "LEAVE THAT PREVIEW VISIBLE" and then calculate it with the smaller bit. Watch your screen closely and then click preview. You might use animate or not, but you should see some change on your preview screen. If it is a lot of change then go with the smaller bit, if not so much then choose to stay with the larger.

I use cherry and black walnut and my feeds are 2.6 inch per second and 2.6 inch per second plunge. I do pretty much an 8% step over no matter which bit i use

I do change my VR values for 3-d. These values were sent to me by those who have more talent than me, again they work.http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=28070&stc=1

No matter what that is a hell of a carving that you did.

[kitcabsource]

Wow!!!
See, now that's some of the work I want to do!!!! I'm glad you mentioned the cut time involved. If a spindle is quieter, then I must look into one because my shop is under the kids bedrooms!!!
Question for cowboy....
Are you saying that the cut time for lex could have been faster ?

[myxpykalix]

kitcabsource re: sound...be aware that sometimes the material you cut thru or the bits you use may make more noise then the spindle or router, or even dust collection system you use. So you may spend money on a spindle for sound reasons but it not help and you've spent more money for no help in that reason.

[kitcabsource]

kitcabsource re: sound...be aware that sometimes the material you cut thru or the bits you use may make more noise then the spindle or router, or even dust collection system you use. So you may spend money on a spindle for sound reasons but it not help and you've spent more money for no help in that reason.

Maybe I'll just buy the kids ear plugs !!!!!! Lol

[joe]

Aside from a Spindle being so quiet it also gives the option to speed up or lower the rpms. On those long runs you can dial the speed that's so perfect the ear tells you all is well. Jack Jarvis is correct in saying this may not be a good move for the novice.

Some of us run 3d files over night. Ron, my support is finishing up with a dozen 3'X8' woodgrain panels that take approx 5' each. I'd never trust a router overnight so it's the trusty old spindle. For the life of me I can't think a technical advantage for the router.

[gc3]

mirror frame file run from 8 pm until it finished this one 1550mm length...have run many files 24 hrs plus...