GDGeorge
02-20-2012, 09:28 AM
Well good morning folks! I received my Desktop about ten days ago. I'm not quite ready to write a review yet, but did want to let you know what I've been doing with the thing.
Right now, I've got two or three projects going. The first is the continuing garage-clearance project. Although I cleared a spot for the Shopbot and moved the computer back out there, my lathe and "workbench" remain buried. It get's a little better each day and today is going to involve throwing a lot of stuff away. It's amazing how much junk can build up in a year! Fortunately I can work on that while the 'bot is carving away.
Speaking of which, the second project that I'm working on is a set of military plaques for donation to the local DAV. They are 16" in diameter, each with a service logo carved in the center and then the service name v-carved around the logo. I've cut a couple, to test the machine, play with the software and just to get my feet wet. I will start on the final ones this week (maybe even today).
I had an issue with my dust collector, a small Harbor Freight unit with castors removed and hung on the wall. The foam was getting hung up on the fan screen and plugging the unit up. (This happens with larger pieces of wood when I run the lathe as well). So I made a trip to the not so local Woodcraft store and picked up a lid to add a primary stage to the unit. That and a 30 gallon trash can seem to have resolved the issue.
The only problem that I'm still having with these is the material. I'm using 1" and 1.5" foam from the local big box. It cuts OK but there is going to be some clean up when I go to finish the plaques off. I'd like to find a source for off-cuts of HDU foam.
Speaking of finishing, once I get the plaques cut out, I'm going to sand as necessary, prime, and then paint with a two step latex process that will, hopefully wind up looking bronzish. (That's a new word: bronzish.)
The other thing that I've been playing with is v-carving letters. Getting things sized right is a bit of a challenge. I think I'm going to take some scrap 1x12 and just cut "This is a 90 deg. v-bit at .125" and the like. That will give me an idea of what each bit is capable of.
Cheers,
Jerry George
Right now, I've got two or three projects going. The first is the continuing garage-clearance project. Although I cleared a spot for the Shopbot and moved the computer back out there, my lathe and "workbench" remain buried. It get's a little better each day and today is going to involve throwing a lot of stuff away. It's amazing how much junk can build up in a year! Fortunately I can work on that while the 'bot is carving away.
Speaking of which, the second project that I'm working on is a set of military plaques for donation to the local DAV. They are 16" in diameter, each with a service logo carved in the center and then the service name v-carved around the logo. I've cut a couple, to test the machine, play with the software and just to get my feet wet. I will start on the final ones this week (maybe even today).
I had an issue with my dust collector, a small Harbor Freight unit with castors removed and hung on the wall. The foam was getting hung up on the fan screen and plugging the unit up. (This happens with larger pieces of wood when I run the lathe as well). So I made a trip to the not so local Woodcraft store and picked up a lid to add a primary stage to the unit. That and a 30 gallon trash can seem to have resolved the issue.
The only problem that I'm still having with these is the material. I'm using 1" and 1.5" foam from the local big box. It cuts OK but there is going to be some clean up when I go to finish the plaques off. I'd like to find a source for off-cuts of HDU foam.
Speaking of finishing, once I get the plaques cut out, I'm going to sand as necessary, prime, and then paint with a two step latex process that will, hopefully wind up looking bronzish. (That's a new word: bronzish.)
The other thing that I've been playing with is v-carving letters. Getting things sized right is a bit of a challenge. I think I'm going to take some scrap 1x12 and just cut "This is a 90 deg. v-bit at .125" and the like. That will give me an idea of what each bit is capable of.
Cheers,
Jerry George