First BIG 3d piece

[bam_bam]

This is our first big 3d carving off the new shopbot. It is 17"tall X 31" long and is all one piece of solid cherry. Don't look at the pic to close I am not good at taking pics but I will tell you the Bot did a GREAT job and all of the thanks go to them and James Booth for the art work and Brady for all of the ramping settings and one more Great guy Jon at BQTools for the fine 1/8" ballnose bits he made special for me.





1678

[phil_o]

Looks great.

[phd1658]

I second Phil's comment. What size and how long did it take you

[coach]

nice job, what is the material?
why did you need special ball nose bits? How are they different?
Thanks for sharing.
David

[bam_bam]

The piece is one piece of cherry wood the final size after finished was 17" tall and 31" long. It took about 1 and 1/2 hours to rough out with a 1/4 2 flute at 3ips and it took right at 12 hours to do the finish path with an 1/8" ballnose bit with a .011 step over at 2.5 ips. As for the special bit it was just a 1/8 ball nose with a 3 degree taper with a 3/4" cut length 3" OAL. I buy them from BQTools to insure that they don't brake as easy as a standard 1/8 ball nose, the 3 degree helps as does only having the 3/4" cut length. The other reason is they are about half price of many others out there.

[myxpykalix]

The carving looks great but i'm more impressed with the fact that you got a single piece of 18" wide cherry.

[bam_bam]

Jack,
What will really make you impressed is I have several pieces of it and they all had to be cut down to go through the 20" planer. I kept several that are still 22" wide and have great burl and some dark streakes in them. I am so thankfull that my Father-in has a super connection with the lumbermill where he lives in KY. You never know what he will find next!
To all a great day and a happy labor day, and thanks to all of the Men and Woman that are in our armed services that alow us to be here to be with our Families. Praise them all!

[tmerrill]

Great project!

I also have some 5/4 by 22" cherry from local sources waiting for that special use. Most likely destined for a bed, but who knows...

Also, thanks for the router bit company tip. Just looked at them and will probably place an order to test a few.

Tim

[bam_bam]

Thanks to all for the flowers, but I really don't get any credit the Shopbot does all of the hard work and James Booth made the artwork and spent some time e-mailing me back and forth. To help with the sizing to get all of the detail that I needed. I wanted to see the fingers and toes and have the best detail possible, and James has a wealth of knowledge in 3d artwork and the programs that are used cut them with. The pic really does not do this piece justice it has much much more detail than you can see here.
Tim, you also are a lucky man, most that see the wood selection that I have are very invious. But not to my credit again my father-in law is a saint, it has taken several years to accumulate my special wood pile but it is just for me as we say.

[mikeacg]

Don't forget that you can surface large boards on the Bot. I hate to see you cutting down those wider boards to run through your 20" planer!
The piece looks beautiful! I'd love to see a larger picture. Did you put it on your website?
Mike

[khalid]

Mike.. one side of the board must be surfafaced on the planner to get a reference...

[scottcox]

Khalid,

Not so. You can surface one side on the 'bot, then flip it and surface the other side. The first (now flat) side will use your surfaced spoilboard for reference to cut the other side.

[ron brown]

Sometimes the pieces must be secured with wedges to stabilize for the initial face. I have surfaced 3 piece 48" wide walnut and 2 piece QS white oak tops as well as cut dovetails and such before flipping and finishing the top surfaces.

IF your spindle/router is square with the top and the machine flex is not too bad the top will be ready for final sanding or (my favorite) hand-planing.

One can also surface with the proper series of hand planes it the top is too large to fit on a 'ShopBot'.

Ron

[khalid]

Mike i have no experience for surfacing on the CNC.. However, if you both surfaces are not Flat (irregular)..then Your spoil board will not be a good reference..

Suppose your workpiece is irrugular...when you keep on the spoil board..it will remain irregular and the surfacing will be done for taking the reference the bottom irregular side....

When you flip the board and surface the other side..you will have both sides Flat but with not equal thickness..

This is the reason, we surface one side with shaper and then when it becomes flat then we can surface the other side with CNC or shaper.....

Hope you will understand what i am taking..

[khalid]

I have no experience on surfacing, so pardon me if i am going into wrong debate... I question this just for my own learning...

[mikeacg]

Khalid,

It's no different than cutting a log on a sawmill. As long as the piece is securely held in place, the first cut you make becomes the reference surface for all subsequent cuts. I place the piece on the table and roughly level it with a 3 ft level. Then I move the spindle around over the piece to get closer and shim as required. I screw wooden fences around the piece to prevent any movement. The weight of the piece is generally enough to keep it from coming up so I don't have to screw it in place. When you flip the piece over after surfacing the top, the second side will, by definition, be parallel to the other surface.

1679

[robtown]

I surface tabletops all the time. I did a slab of 8/4 zebra wood 76" x 32" no too long ago, worked perfect. If the piece is big enough and heavy enough you barely need any sort of hold down if you're just surfacing.

If your piece has a distinct warp in it, wedge under any high spots, before screwing it down. The key is to have a flat spoilboard, and to NOT distort the piece of wood when screwing it to the spoilboard, let the router flatten to top side and flip.

[myxpykalix]

Michael...I love the artwork! mine is never that good.

[khalid]

Thanks Mike for insight

[beacon14]

I've done this exact thing with slabs up to 30" x 102". I find it helpful to put the face down to the spoilboard and surface the backside first, that way I can see just how out of flat the face is by comparing it to the spoilboard. Typically two corners will touch and two will be off the spoilboard. By shimming the same amount under the two high corners I can ensure that after surfacing the backside and flipping the part over, I'll be removing the least amount of wood possible to get a flat surface on the good face, maintaining the maximum thickness possible for that workpiece.

Here I'm using a guage block to shim the workpiece so as to take an even amount off each corner. The clamps and scraps form a temporary extension of the table surface to reference from, since the workpiece is longer than my table, and will be removed before I start surfacing.

1680
On this one I surfaced the tops first, then to maintain the maximum edge thickness I'm only surfacing the underside where it will rest on it's base.

1681

[bob_c]

I have also used wedges where I have unsupported over hanging edges. When setting the wedges, I apply hot glue to the wedge surfaces and then gently press them in place. Doing this insures that they will not vibrate lose during the machining process.

[mikeacg]

Jack - I do artwork for a living so I have an unfair advantage...
Khalid - If I have shown you anything, it was probably by accident! You still amaze me on a regular basis!
David - I love the idea of leaving the extra wood on the bottom of the table. It has that Sam Maloof look going on!

Mike