A note on styrofoam.. I have carved a few types of foam and by far the one that is the hardest to clean up after is the white "popcorn" style, called expanded polystyrene.  but I cut out a dino skull out of it for my nephew as christmas gift..  I think I will try this again maybe with the more aggressive photo? 

New Year With A Bang.

I have had my hands full this year. I cut out a bunch of Oregon Duck O's It is much easer to cut sheet plastic than I thought. I should have used a Spiral Down bit to keep the sheet from picking up off of the bed. The "Chips" go every where even when I did battle with the vacuum it still flew everywhere. Between the static cling and the hooking action of the sharp ends it became almost impossible to get it out of my work clothes.

Happy New Year

It was a year ago on the 14th I decided to buy a CNC machine.  So in celebration I want to share this video.  It's not mine but I like it any way...

Hand tools

In the last post I talked about the large tools you would need but there are hand tools that are indispensable.
You could live without a table saw or a bandsaw but you must have hand tools..

First is a hand drill, and don't go cordless.  If you leave a plug on it it works so much better..  I use mine to screw my work down to my table..

Second a Skill Saw..  This will make short work of those boards that are too long to fit in your shop.  It also works for cutting down pallets..

Third one is a router..  A hand router, this should be the same size as the one in your CNC and works with your bits...

Fourth is a Saber-Saw.. Jig Saw,  a Jitterbug Saw..  To get those little parts that need to be trimmed cut and nipped..

Fifth is a Dremmel, this little work horse gets the screws that are too long down to size as well as sanding in the tight little spaces...

The Sixth is a palm sander..  Get a good set of shock gloves with this too,  It really saves your hands.

The Seventh tool isn't really a tool but a bright shop light..  The brighter the better...  I think it would be difficult to have too much light..

The Eighth is a catch all computer accessories...  Digital camera, Thumb drive and a wireless keyboard and mouse..

Hardware You Might Need.

Ok my CNC is one of the most powerful machine you can get for your home shop but it can't do it all..

Ok it can but it isn't the easiest or fastest machine to use..

There are 4 floor tools and 6 hand tools that you should have in your shop if you really want to do production with your CNC..

The first tool is

Table Saw..  This tool you should have even if you don't have a CNC, but this allows you to cut large pieces to fit on your work surface..  Get a couple of extras to help out... One is a out-feed roller, then a better miter gage..

The second tool is one I have wanted for some time..  A drill press..  Not really needed but this could speed up production..  It takes the CNC 45 sec just to mill one .25 hole .5 deep..  You compare that to a drill press that can blow out the same hole in under 8 sec..  and it is round..  I have been fighting a wobble with the CNC holes..

Third tool is a Joiner..  This will allow you to easily glue board together to get some great effects...  You can do butcher block carving or stripes of alternating colors and carve them as one block because the edges are true and easy to glue..

The forth and final floor tool is the bandsaw..  This allows you to do a couple of tricks.. One is re-sawing boards thiner so you can get more projects out the same amour of wood.  Another trick is be able to cut out your parts after you mill them out..

I hope this link helps you make a dream list for your wood shop..  Happy Holidays 2010.

Software Update

I got a software update the other day and it has been installed..  Aspire is the driving program I purchased to build 3d shapes that I can carve..  It has been working fine but there are a few things that I would change  I would like to see..

One I would love to set some milling patterns..  Right now the system goes back and forth or around and around..  Some other patterns I think would be nice is wave, bubble, square, and spiral.

The second thing I wanted to see was the "sculpting" tool simplified.

I didn't get the first but I did get the second.. Then they also included something I didn't even know I needed.  They eliminated the need to make a "working model" and allow you to use only one model and don't require you to shift everything over to one form then back to another to adjust your 3d model..

If you would like to see the newest updates check out this link..

Fish Art 4

Sometimes revising is more difficult than creating the original.  Especially when you see that the comments on the first proof are correct.  That is what happend with this peice..  I wanted to get the flow and movement of fish swimming.. 

People don't normal see fish from the side swimming nature... We see fish swimming from the top looking down..   I have only seen the "wild" side view a couple of times my self.. Aquariums and fish-tanks help but most of the time it looks like the fish are just sitting there if viewed from the side.. 

From the top it is another story so now I am trying to get movement you see looking down on fish from the side out of wood a stiff unyielding stuff.  and make it look natural...  Who said this job isn't fun?

It took more tricks than I could think of in one go so I made several false starts at it but I got proof 2 to show to the client...

The background color is just there to illustrate the different levels of the mounting wood... The fish will be attached on top by something...