Tiny eagles

[bill.young]

I just got back from the Skiils USA event where among other things we engraved the ShopBot logo and tiny eagles into almost 300 carpenters pencils using a ShopBot MAX.

The logos were carved with w 90 deg vbit, and then the blanks were flipped and the eagles carved with a 1/32" tapered ballnose bit from Amana.

The eagle model is one of the ones that's included with the Vectric software, and the carving is around 0.4" high by 0.6" long by 0.05" deep. My cellphone photo doesn't show the detail very well...they really turned out well.

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[tri4sale]

Nice! Did you hold down w/ double sided tape?

[scottp55]

Did someone say "Tiny"? :) :)

I think you beat me by .4" all around for a tiny 3D Bill! :)

NICE!!
scott

[bill.young]

There's almost no up-force when cutting shallow stuff like that so I machined a holding jig that was a friction fit. Pressed them in, did the v-carving on a bunch of them, and then flipped to do the eagle carving. For the first handful I tried doing the logo with the same tapered ballnose as the eagle but it left the top edge too fuzzy on these cheap pencils.

Scott...you were my inspiration for trying this!

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[scottp55]

Just curious what the jig was made of...Extira?
Neat little production line! You ought to see if there's a"Pencil Society of America", Like the "Button Society of America" where I sold my Bloodwood "Loons" for $40 a pop! :)

Was it Precise Bit's 1/32" TBN?

Thanks! :) But at least the softest wood I used was Cherry for fun, and Bloodwood for selling.....who knows what wood was in those:)

Bet people were standing in line at times to get one!
Congrats!!
scott

[bill.young]

Nope not extera...just plain old mdf!

The bit was from Amana. It's one of the ones ShopBot sells and has a 1/4" shank and 1/32" diameter ballnose.

[Chuck Keysor]

Looking at your first photo, I think things would have looked much nicer had you moved the eagle over to the left about 1/2"........ you would have removed "CHINA". Chuck

[bill.young]

I tried to remember to flip them so that the China was on the end that got sharpened away, but it got so hectic at times that I was just sticking them in at random!

Bill



Looking at your first photo, I think things would have looked much nicer had you moved the eagle over to the left about 1/2"........ you would have removed "CHINA". Chuck

[chiloquinruss]

1/32 ball nose, I gotta get one of dem! My smallest is 1/16th and I use it almost everyday!

Great sample piece for a show! Russ

[scottp55]

Thanks Bill:)
You were cutting darn close to the bevel, and thought you might have been using something more stable than the darn Big Box Store I made my modified B.Y. modified "Wedging Top" I'm still using 5 yrs later. I notice about .01" movement of my Y fence when a day goes from 50F/50%RH to 85F/65%.........wish I had bought a better grade, or waited till I had HDO for the substrate.

I bought a few sets of Chinese TBN's in both .125" and .25" shanks with .25mm-1mmRadius last Fall after Randall and a few others on Vectric Forum recommended them. The 1.5" long .125" shanks are still going strong, but the 3"long .25" shanks got a Lot of use this Winter in Very Dense exotics, and might be able to notice a slight dulling on the .25mmR now after about 100 hours of use.

Have to compare the Amana and the Precise bits 1/32" now:)

Did you make a Finger Groove at the opposite end to facilitate removal, or did you use the T-Bones and an implement for removal?
I can just see you swapping and flipping like crazy to get the run going again:)

Hard to beat either Desktop for accuracy and repeatability!! :)

scott

[bill.young]

This was basically a test run so the mdf held up well enough. I intentionally cut the recess undersized at first and then snuck up on a good friction fit that let me press the pencils into the pockets.

There was enough of the end of the pencils exposed that I could pop most of them out with my finger, but occasionally had to pry one up to get it started. This was mostly due to variations in the pencils, though I was surprised how consistent $0.03 pencils for China are!

All in all it was a good demo and handout. Will be doing more I'm sure.

[scottp55]

Hey Bill,
It's a Tiny World!
Have a tall Texan friend that was at Denver UGM that finally managed to talk you out out of a "Tiny Eagle" pencil.....and then sent it to Me! :) :)
Only the Eagle..so needs some Tiny font added.
NC/Denver/Texas/to Maine:)
GLAD you broke down and gave him one(should have given him TWO so he would have too)!!
Thanks!
scott