[widgitmaster]

Sand, file, and sand, file some more. Almost half the day spent on it and it's about halfway finished. It is much smoother now. Lots of tool marks to sand flat due to the Rotozip blade cutting dips. I looked for a long reach 1/8" end mill with no luck today. I'll try looking again tonight.

Widgit, my back hurts, my fingers hurt, my butt hurts, but at least my knees are holding up ok.

That cross is stunning!

As for the end mill's, have you tried Enco They carry many lengths & diameters, but most of all they indicate the Grade of carbide! Being that C1 - C7 grades have different hardness's, the C5-C7 is the best for high RPM wood carving! Their prices are not too bad either! Now they sell several identical items at various prices, and the cheaper ones are not so well ground. They don't hold up in metals, but kick-ass in hard woods!

See ya at the finish line
Widgit

[CarveOne]

Thanks Ed. I bookmarked that link. It's just what I was looking for. A ball-nose version of it would be nice to have also. I'll get them on order next week. Probably will order a couple of 10 packs.

[ger21]

I saw a bunch of 1/8" ballnose with 22mm doc on Ebay last night

[spyderxxx]

C1

Try these

10pcs 3 175mm 1 8" 2 Flute Ball Nosel END MILL Cutter CNC BIT 25mm CEL | eBay

Ed

[CarveOne]

I saw a bunch of 1/8" ballnose with 22mm doc on Ebay last night

22mm is deep enough also. Just need to cut 3/4" material or less.

[CarveOne]

C1

Try these

10pcs 3 175mm 1 8" 2 Flute Ball Nosel END MILL Cutter CNC BIT 25mm CEL | eBay

Ed

I bookmarked that one also. Says 2 available and 1 sold. At least the types I need are available. I was beginning to think they were a bad idea from a breakage standpoint if they were a longer flute length.

[CarveOne]

All sanded, and stain has been applied. I'll start applying polyurethane later today when the stain has dried enough.

[Arbo]

Simply amazing work.

[leibowitz]

Looking real good C1.

[CarveOne]

Thanks guys. Always looking for something different to make just for fun and learning.

[CarveOne]

Speaking of something different, I shrank my Paradise Box basket weave design down to a suitable size to fit the 1911A grips. Pretty much any texture pattern can also be modeled and scaled to fit. Bricks, stone work, water ripples, etc. It seems that I can make the designs better than I can actually cut the grips from the models. I need to work on that aspect some more. Right now I'm just building up a few designs to have ready when I figure out the correct fixture and procedures for producing a batch of grips that fit properly and are unique.

[CarveOne]

I spent the evening reworking the hot rod instrument panel to reduce the height to 7.5" tall. This time I will be working with a rectangular piece of walnut and don't have to worry about fitting it to a pre-shaped piece of material. Before cutting the instrument panel I'll cut a test sample without the Celtic weave and stars so that we can do a trial fit of the instruments and the overall panel fit where it must nest into the fiberglass body at the upper corners. The test panel will be cut into some scrap 5/16" birch veneer plywood I have in the shop. I should be able to cut this test panel sometime today.

[CarveOne]

I took a couple photos of the skeletonized crosses to eventually put on my web site.

[CarveOne]

I'm back at work on the hot rod instrument panel, this time to finish it (I hope). The owner and I scribed the ends of the panel as close to the dash outline as we could with a pick tool that could reach the back side of the test panel and follow the cockpit curve. This morning I finally got some time to work on re-drawing it in CAD to match the scribe marks and rearranged the weave and stars to fit the new shapes. I then cut a new test panel from a piece of 5/16" birch veneer plywood. When placed against the first test panel it matches very closely to the scribe marks. The smaller instrument holes are still a little too small, so I enlarged them another 0.010" in Aspire.

Tomorrow I hope to do another trial fit to the hot rod - and maybe cut the final walnut instrument panel.

[CarveOne]

The test panel fit perfectly this time. Poor weather delayed cutting the walnut until tomorrow or Thursday.

[tinygiants]

Speaking of something different, I shrank my Paradise Box basket weave design down to a suitable size to fit the 1911A grips. Pretty much any texture pattern can also be modeled and scaled to fit. Bricks, stone work, water ripples, etc. It seems that I can make the designs better than I can actually cut the grips from the models. I need to work on that aspect some more. Right now I'm just building up a few designs to have ready when I figure out the correct fixture and procedures for producing a batch of grips that fit properly and are unique.

If you are going to make pistol grips, check out this guy. Harp Custom 1911 Pistol Grip Making Building True Custom Wood Grips - YouTube

This is how he stabilizes his blanks. Stabilized 1911 Custom Wood Grips, Exotic Wood Grip Stabilization Process - YouTube

His work is not CNC, but it is relevant.

[CarveOne]

I've made them by hand over the past 50 years without the stabilization process and they have held up pretty well with just epoxy or TrueOil finish. I used to hand checker them also. Once I have a fixture that works well and a CNC procedure that works well I can do so much more with the decoration of them using Aspire. My biggest problem seems to be finding time to work on it continuously. Too many things keep interfering with it. CNC cuts the production time and effort a lot. For me, it isn't about production rate as much as it is about doing something really unique with the designs.

[bill south]

Hey Guys;
Any idea what resin he is using in the vacuum jar? Carve, I hear what you saying aboutn a lack of time. I actually have the parts for 2 custom 1911's on the shelf to be built and they have been there for months now! Just not enough time. I afraid that when I finally get to retire, it's going to taike the rest of my days on this earth just to catch up! How is the green monster coming?
Bill

[tinygiants]

Hey Guys;
Any idea what resin he is using in the vacuum jar? Carve, I hear what you saying aboutn a lack of time. I actually have the parts for 2 custom 1911's on the shelf to be built and they have been there for months now! Just not enough time. I afraid that when I finally get to retire, it's going to taike the rest of my days on this earth just to catch up! How is the green monster coming?
Bill

Cactus Juice, it is the bottle in the background.

[CarveOne]

Hey Guys;
Any idea what resin he is using in the vacuum jar? Carve, I hear what you saying aboutn a lack of time. I actually have the parts for 2 custom 1911's on the shelf to be built and they have been there for months now! Just not enough time. I afraid that when I finally get to retire, it's going to taike the rest of my days on this earth just to catch up! How is the green monster coming?
Bill

It's a fact, Bill, that I have less personal hobby time now than I did before retiring.

I'm finally back at work on the green monster finalizing the paint work on the small stuff. What remains now is painting bolt heads (and anything else that shows) gloss black. The brackets and other larger pieces are completed. Sometime soon I'll start installing the 12' long X axis rails. They have to be clamped to the upper 12' tubes and aligned carefully. Then drill and thread the tubes for the bolts that hold the rails to the upper tubes. When that is completed the rest of the parts will go back together fairly quickly.