3D Barrel Racer in 9 inch log cookie

[carolinasmith]

I sawed a log cookie, dried it in my experimental kiln (nonworking freezer), and carved a donation for a Wounded Warrior auction using 1/4 EM for roughing and 1/16 BN for finishing.

I wasn't sure what to expect since my first carving was in Design and Makes 'in an oval' option, which made for a smooth backdrop to the other subject. This time I just chose the 'subject only' option, which leaves an area outside of the subject cut by the roughing EM.

Is there a way to get a smoother roughing base that is left over without changing bits?

Also I had one error message in ShopBot 3 in the execution, a Parameter Error: Parameter Value Below Range for VS--Setting to Lower Limit (.05)! to which I chose 'OK' and the program continued. What was that? (My guess is Variable Speed, but how to alter??)

I cleaned up (some fuzzies and such) with Dremel tips, did a hand chamfer on the profile edge, and after oohing and ahhing after Cowboy's 3D finishes and consulting Flexner's finishing book, improvised with what I had on hand, 2 coats of Minwax Poly Wipe (I'll try Arm-R-Seal some day).

I was scratching my head as to how to make the subject stand out from the grain rings of the log cookie, so tried painting stained Briwax on the subjects with small/fine paint brushes and a hair blow dryer to melt the wax to help the subjects stand out. Then every thing finished with clear paste wax. I still plan to finish buffing this on a buffing wheel (lathe).

If I do a 3D log cookie again, I might try to CNC chamfer the profile outline, though the uneven hand chamfer is prolly ok for the 'rustic' look. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Barrel racer cookie 128kb.jpg

[srwtlc]

Nice looking piece there, but yes, it could benefit from some changes to how the pocket/dish was done and that is one of your questions. Take a look at the training videos having anything to do with making dished models. At times, I'll just make an oval or round dish and at other times I'll make a random or exaggerated model offset shaped dish (see example). Make the dish with create shape from vectors (dome subtracted) or a center filled 2 rail sweep. This will give you a better/cleaner wall since it will not be a straight wall.

One thing I do is to take a good straight on photo at the proper orientation for X and then bring that photo into Aspire, scale it to the approximate size, set the object properties to 0% fade or what works best, and then use that for designing the various parts of the project.

The error message was likely due to a low feedrate setting for an axis in your toolpath tool settings. Make sure you set the feedrate values to inches/sec, not inches/min.

[carolinasmith]

Thanks Scott, I'm still not experienced enough to understand all your suggestions yet, but I'll get there. Your examples are really cool.

A baby next step for me would be to figure out how to add a subject to any dish circle, or better yet, to any 'dish', I recall seeing a vectric forum tutorial (I think) on that. I did a practice concave circle (for a future ulu cutting board project) earlier, and at least the circle shape would work better for a log cookie, but I don't yet know how to add/merge the subject to the dish.

But I even like better the 'exaggerated model offset shaped dish' (not sure I saw a Vectric tutorial on offset dishes?? I have watched most of them once). Does one just pick a large offset value, but then both the Rough and Finish offset values would have to be equal?

I now notice that my roughing offset value was 0.2 inches whereas my Finish offset was 0.05 inches and maybe that difference also accounted for the rough base, seeing as the BN finishing bit didn't then cover the same territory (I shortcut it, inadvertently). Thanks.

[Joe Porter]

Smith, it's as simple as you say; make your dish and select or make your 3D figure and use the "Add" combine command to the existing component (dish), and it will sit right where you place it. Now, the figure may be too high for the dish or too big or too little, that is where the tutorials come in. I know you have studied them, but this takes awhile. http://support.vectric.com/tutorials...ish_3DMOD.html This is the Combine mode instead of Add. This is the Add mode on steroids. This is a good tutorial for what you are talking about. I have two monitors so I can follow the tutorial as I practice on my project.
If you look at Vectric's You Tube channel, there must be 200 hundred tutorials starting from day one to present. Adrian on the Vectric Forum doesn't like for me to mention this because some or a lot of the tutorials are out of date, but it helps me with the nuts and bolts and brings me to the present.
This really helps me...Hope this is of some help to you...joe

[carolinasmith]

Thank you, Joe. I'll try watching on an iPad alongside my computer. Thank you for the link. Along with Scott's 'exaggerated model offset dish' idea, I have direction to get closer to what I envision. Any other comments/suggestions from anyone? I need to figure out how to execute Scott's suggestion. Thank you.

[Joe Porter]

Aspire screen shot.jpg I just started working on this today. Downloaded the picture, then vectorized it and then freehanded what will be a dish around a simple raised shape. I hope... Start with the straight line tool and kind of rough out a perimeter and then go to node editing and smooth the nodes and you will be surprised at what you may end up with...joe