Kansas/Oklahoma Users Meet

[joe]

Thanks to all attendee’s for a great Saturday. I learned a lot and had a great day.

Jay Nicholades
Gary Beckwith
Doug Strickland
Dennis Sapp
Ron Mitchell


It all started around 7am. Three of us gathered for breakfast. Around 8:30, back at the shop, the fun began.

Gary B. brought the latest ArtCam Pro 2008 version, and did a great demo for us. He’s now a certified ArtCam dealer giving great technical support. We enjoyed his guiding us through the basics. We also got some eye popping demos on the real power of the program. This took about a half day and everyone was very appreciative. 3D is probably in the future for many of us. Two years ago I couldn’t imagine moving in that direction.


While Gary was doing the demos in the front office, we sent the router on its way carving a lobster. Since Jerry Hicks has been eyeing some of my specialty bits, wondering about 3D carving with them. We decided to do another lobster, just for him. We could hear it buzzing out in the shop.


With these large bits there isn’t much concern about bit stress. On this particular file we didn’t use a roughing pass. It carved Z 1.6” at 3ips. Could have gone to 5ips with ease. Everyone was amazed at how fast and smooth it went.


I had the bits made about two years ago. The larger one is approx 3.5” in height. They’ve proven a real time saver when working with thick materials. If anyone is interested in purchasing, let me know. Several of us are getting quotes on another batch.

Wood Graining with the router:

I’ve been on a mission to develop a delicate, realistic wood pattern for HDU. We ended up blasting Redwood, Cypress, Cedar and White Pine in an attempt to build the wood grain files. We even tried blasting some insulation foam with a Grain Frame. It was a failed exercise. Cypress proved to be the most interesting.

Were looking forward to another outing soon.




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[jhicks]

Terriffic that you guys were able to get together on some challenging ideas and techniques. Sorry I wasn't there to join in the fun.
That darn wood grain sandblast look must have a viable answer somewhere but that piece has a lot of character. Lobster looks quite detailed for single pass cutting.
Keep up the good work and we'll discuss those custom bits soon.
That new shop looks pretty nice Joe from what I can see. Must be a comfortable place to be creative.

[joe]

Thanks Jerry,

The shop is very comfortable. It's going to take another year to get it set up the way I want. So far we havent needed to turn on the lights since the skylights are more than adequate. Natural light is so much better.

This week we are installing a perminent cool tube fixture and light to the vacuum pickup. I'm also looking at a removeable front section on the dust collector. That way I can stop the machine during a job and inspect the cuts.

Were trying to keep up with you guys.