[CarveOne]

As you know, Arbo and I are kinda partial to the Celtic knot work.

[harryn]

A lot of neat items in this thread. Nearly every day something new and artistic.

[CarveOne]

Harryn,

There will be plenty here for you to choose from for your first project on that new machine when it's ready. If you need a file for any of the things I have made I will provide it. I've done that for a few of the guys and they incorporate parts of it into their own projects. The Vectric site has free project downloads. That's where the Paradise box came from. We just have fun decorating them.

[CarveOne]

Here is the first correctly machined 1911A right side grip, after three tries in basswood. After the last tweaks to the Aspire file I decided to try a harder wood than basswood to see how it worked with the same feed rate. This time it was red oak because I have lots of scraps left from the P box builds. The oak cuts with less fuzzies.

I'm using the dowel pin setup with the dowels in a sacrificial block of oak that is fastened to the spoil board, and setting Z0 at the top surface of the block, which is the bottom surface of the grip panel. This makes it irrelevant that the block of material may be slightly thicker or thinner than the 0.030" thickness defined in the material setup menu. The cut panel measures 0.2515" thick after minor clean-up sanding. The final thickness was expected to be 0.250". Close enough.

Now to finish the left side grip panel. All it needs is tweaking the profile and model to fine tune the cut part's position on the grip frame like I did the right side panel.

[LouF]

C1, they look good are you going to checker them or put some kind of cross hatch on them?



Lou

[CarveOne]

C1, they look good are you going to checker them or put some kind of cross hatch on them?

Lou

Eventually I will try checkering and other designs carved onto them. The goal right now is to get the basic Aspire files created correctly. The grips I have are all slightly different in size and not perfectly centered on the frame. When the left grip panel is correct, I can copy and use the files to make the full length grips from them.

Checkering the grips will be interesting. As the surface rounds over to the left and right from the center line through the screws the cutter does not lean to compensate for the need to stay perpendicular to the surface as I had to do when doing hand checkering with my Gunline checkering tools. The checkering diamonds will be leaning by the time they get to the edge of the grips.

I have a couple of old checkering books that have template drawings I can scan and use for a CAD drawing in Aspire to also include scroll carvings along with the checkering. I'll need to build a small rotary axis to use for doing this work properly. It will be fun to make them this way instead of the manual method that sometimes takes days to complete.

I hope to get that far along with it eventually, but there are always other diversions getting in the way.

[LouF]

C1, that is cool it will be interesting when you do get to the checkering since they are not flat.



Lou

[Drools]

hey guys, if someone has a centerpiece like the one C1 posted on his website but square would you post a dxf or whatever format you have.

[CarveOne]

hey guys, if someone has a centerpiece like the one C1 posted on his website but square would you post a dxf or whatever format you have.

Which one in particular (by the name on it) Drools? Or the style, floral, elliptical, Celtic knot?

[Drools]

Thanks C1, the floral one. No name, as I do that in CAD.

[CarveOne]

Thanks C1, the floral one. No name, as I do that in CAD.

I have done a couple versions of that, but both were round. The individual vectors can be moved around to fit into a square arrangement. The reason for asking the name on the box was to know which arrangement you like the best.

I'll save them both in dxf format and put them in a zip file.

[CarveOne]

The Sabrina box has a lot of rearranged floral details on it. I had forgotten that I did two versions of it. There are lots of stuff to use or discard in either version. The TEST version has the beginnings of the elliptical centerpiece idea and I did that after I had made the box for Sabrina. It has never been cut though.

[LouF]

Oh well live and learn it is hard to stain poplar wood and have it not come out blotchy. I guess with pre-stain wood conditioner and sanding after the first and maybe second coat it will come out right..



Lou

[LouF]

The Sabrina box has a lot of rearranged floral details on it. I had forgotten that I did two versions of it. There are lots of stuff to use or discard in either version. The TEST version has the beginnings of the elliptical centerpiece idea and I did that after I had made the box for Sabrina. It has never been cut though.

C1, they look very good I like the second one more...


Lou

[CarveOne]

Oh well live and learn it is hard to stain poplar wood and have it not come out blotchy. I guess with pre-stain wood conditioner and sanding after the first and maybe second coat it will come out right..

Lou

I would be more likely to paint poplar. It doesn't have much character and it doesn't stain evenly as you have found. It's hard to beat oak for the wow factor unless you use highly figured expensive woods.

[CarveOne]

C1, they look very good I like the second one more...

Lou

I do too. All of the floral vectors originally came from Michael Tyler's Paradise box project files. They have been rearranged and scaled to fit, and some have been deleted. I have also modified a few vectors to fit the available space.

[CarveOne]

Here are the two floral centerpieces that I used on the Susan and the Sabrina P boxes. Also the Sabrina Test top panel vectors.

[Drools]

Thanks C1, I can work with these.

[CarveOne]

Thanks C1, I can work with these.

Ok, good. I still wasn't 100% sure I had the right one.

[CarveOne]

Drools, is this anything like you were asking about?

When I close my eyes a little to make it fuzzy, the floral stuff looks almost round, but everything else is square.