3D retaill therapy:)

[joe]

Excellent thread Scott. Thanks for your efforts.
Regardless of the techniques and materials I'd like to thank all you guys for sharing your experiences.

That's what makes the SB forum so special.

Joe

[scottp55]

Thanks guys....means a lot coming from people with experience!
scott

[scottp55]

Bought a couple more and played with the heart/sap line in a piece of 5X24" Cherry, so won't know for a couple weeks of sun how they came out.
Beaver family has 4 days sun.

[Davo]

What happens when it sits in the sun?

[scottp55]

NA Black Cherry heartwood when freshly milled looks almost like Pine.
Heartwood reacts to UV and changes into that beautiful color that antique Cherry pieces reminds us of.
That's unfortunately why a lot of commercial Cherry cabinets/furniture is STAINED "Cherry"
Sapwood stays about the same, so contrast really comes into play.
Full color takes years, but direct sun for 1-6 weeks gets it started.
Pics show a short that was on top of my pile in garage and got summer sun, and then machined flat about .03"
Halogen worklamps work well for UV also.
Funniest thing I ever saw was a Cherry dining table done natural, but customer ignored advice and left a lazy susan in the center of their table for 6 months without moving it. First formal dinner and the pale circle was dramatic
You can see in the "Beaver Family" that I tried to get the sapwood at the waterline(lower left) to stay pale, with the Beavers changing to dark.
And on St. Basils I left the frame sapwood and carved into the heartwood for contrast.

[scottp55]

Did some more therapy yesterday when it couldn't decide on snowing or raining.
Only piece that was fast to prep and cut was a 1.5" Hard Maple kids block.
I didn't guess correctly how the knot in the end grain ran
.9" model, .234" depth, cut with Onsrud .25" 30degree engraving bit with .005"flat at 1,1,18K Offset/Conventional 20% stepover.
I have a Fire Captain showing up tomorrow with her husband for a few hours to go over basic stuff, even if she has an Axiom Pro with spindle, and will use reverse side and teach her tiny tiny fonts and make her do the file and cut it and gift it to her
She wants to get into 3D plaques like Rick does.
Fun! Can't wait to carve the other 4 I bought.

[Pennywood]

I am a complete novice with cnc, so I had no idea that level of finish detail was possible. Those 3D images are amazing! Forgive my ignorance, but is it difficult to create the file for those images?
Scott, we've had excellent results accelerating the natural darkening process in cherry by using lye mixed with water. The higher the concentration you use, the darker the cherry will get (a 1/4 cup per gallon is a good starting point). Be careful, the initial reaction gets warm, and it's a caustic mixture

[scottp55]

I'd LIKE to claim credit for the files, but that's a whole art in itself.
I only have VCarvePro, so I need to purchase them
One guy I've ordered a few times from and been very happy with is Newstyle27 on EBay;
http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?item=...newstyle&rt=nc
There are 3 people I follow now on EBay for when I have a bit of time and looking for something special like these(poor preview pics) I bought recently for some Birds Eye Maple I just prepped.
The Topo of Mt. Desert Island though in Claro Walnut, was made by TPSully in Thingiverse though, and it was free and he made it for me after I asked him if he had ever done that area....NICE guy!
To get that detail though does require smaller bits, and small bits require more time.
Fun though!
Looking forward to cutting these new ones.
Thanks for the Tip on Cherry "Aging", but I prefer to let Nature do her thing
Thanks!

[Brian Harnett]

For modeling humans this software is great and free. And is easy to use. http://www.makehuman.org/

[scottp55]

Thanks Brian!
Not sure where the heck I would use it, but downloading now to play with it as well as the Blender plug-ins.
Never even used Blender, but Paul Rowntree recommended it for smoothing his original "Topo" program for satellite topographical models which I've gotten into.