[Arbo]

There are some planned updates, like wooden dowels to keep things aligned for gluing...

[ecurb5]

Arbo,

What a great idea. Something I haven't thought of or come across. Thanks for posting the file.

[Arbo]

No problem. I am tweaking things, adding holes for alignment dowels and such, as well as a ball storage spot on the cover, and a little arm that swings to cover that hole or the entry hole, so when the ball is in the storage hole it is covered and thus not lost, and so when you play the maze, you cover that hole so the ball can not come back out that way.

I'll probably be cutting one tomorrow, if it comes out as I hope I'll put up the updated files.

[CarveOne]

How about gluing a clear plastic cover over the entrance and exit holes in a shallow pocket so the ball can be seen but it doesn't fall out? This solves the storage issue and also keeps little kids from eating the pretty little chrome plated M&M. You get to put the ball back at the entrance before the next person tries it.

[Arbo]

I guess anyone that wanted to do that could.. I prefer the ability to get the shiny ball.

Almost done with this box for a niece...

[CarveOne]

Looks nice Arbo. I'll bet it's interesting watching all the moves that the router makes while making all of those 90 degree corners.

Is that a Vcarve Pro project?

[CarveOne]

A new project while others dry... a 'lunatics maze'. A cube, with an internal maze, you must flip and turn the cube to get the ball through it.

Using 'slingshot ammo' as the ball, a .30 cal, 5/16" diameter ball. Cut from cheap poplar for the main internal maze, and some nice looking alder for the external pieces. All wood .5 inch thick, using 5.5x36 inch pieces of wood. .25 EM and 60 deg v bit used. The outside pieces are two sided, you can skip the 'decoration' for the outside if you like, or change it, or whatever. I cut the 'decoration' first, then flip it to cut the other side.

More pics after glue dries and I sand away the corners and try to make it look not too bad.

In other news my orbital sander is not longer 'orbital'... just straight spinning disc... something broke, which sucks as it just spins very high speed, makes it hard to hand sand..

There is usually a nylon bushing in the mechanism where the cam is that wears out. Check the manufacturer's exploded view for a part number and see if they have it or check ereplacementparts to see if they have it.

Looking at the .crv file, it looks more like a puzzle to figure out why Vcarve -6, 7, 8 are 90 degree V-bit tool paths, and how the pieces go together. But I finally figured it out.

[Arbo]

Yeah, V-Carve pro.

[CarveOne]

I thought it would be.

While waiting 1.5 hours for another Celtic cross to complete I was searching the web for Free Celtic Cross drawings, Free Celtic knot drawings, and Free Celtic drawings. Found a mother load of stuff. I saved a few for conversions. Also found some other free knot software sites.

Without Free in the search entry it finds a lot of complex tattoo designs.

[Arbo]

There is loads of stuff out there, for sure. Keeping it all organized is my problem.

Here's some shots of the new 'maze' being built, as well as the finished first one... the new one uses two 1/4" dowels for alignment. It's a tight fit so once I have them in the base, the other parts sort of get's banged down into location. I think I'm going to make yet another change, as since the top and bottom are .25" edges out there (thus end grain on two sides), I want the sides of the box to 'show' just a .25" end grain as well, not the full half inch. This might get rid of some of my little gaps from sanding away the holding tabs with the orbital as well.

[CarveOne]

Worked on another Celtic project this evening. I also posted the preliminary simulation image in my build log. More specifics there. This one is a Celtic Christian cross for one of my two sisters.

[cdrd03]

Arbo, the puzzle looks nice. Appropriate name as it would drive me nuts not knowing where the ball is stuck.

Nice looking cross c1. Is that v carved or 3d I am in the process of creating the vcarve for that same cross. Yours looks really nice.

Chuck

[Arbo]

Here are the latest crv files for the puzzle. Includes .25 wooden dowels. They run from the bottom to the top piece, then I cut them off flush with the top piece (not the cover top, the #1 puzzle piece). Also changed how the sides are cut so they ladder together better. Will need to pick up more wood tomorrow to cut out #3... hmm, who will this one go to...

[CarveOne]

Arbo, the puzzle looks nice. Appropriate name as it would drive me nuts not knowing where the ball is stuck.

Nice looking cross c1. Is that v carved or 3d I am in the process of creating the vcarve for that same cross. Yours looks really nice.

Chuck

The conversion went without any modifications needed after the vectors were created, but it has some places that could be made smoother with some node editing. Being imperfect just adds some hand carved looking character. The 2D version looks really good also, and I'll cut one of those. I did this in Aspire by creating a rounded solid model first, and then creating a Vcarve tool path from the same vectors that deepens it. I ended up setting the Vcarve tool path for a flat depth as I thought it looked better with some flat bottoms in the knots at the bottom of the cross where the knots are more widely spaced. It took me a while to realize that there are four arc holes in the circle. I need to find a 1/8" cutter that can go 3/4" deep. The other carvings are all done with a 60 degree 1/2" diameter Whiteside #1550.

Thanks for the lead to a site that makes it much easier to make gcode music from MIDI files. I also found some info on why Python 2.7 isn't working in Windows. Has to do with manually setting an environment variable in the system path. I haven't done it yet, but will try it sometime "just because".

[CarveOne]

So that you guys can try the CNC music, I have attached a .zip file with the before and after files. Move your router to the middle of your x/y/z travels, load the gcode file into Mach3, zero all axes, run the file. Note that this is set up for +/- 4" travel on the X/Y axis, and +/- 2" travel on the Z axis. If you don't have at least 4" Z travel it will hit the limits. Be ready to click on Mach3 STOP or hit an e-stop button on the first run to see how it plays. You will probably hear resonance buzzes while it's playing. Any hardware that can rattle will hit resonance at some frequency.

The .mid file will play in most audio and media player software. It plays fine in Windows Media player.

If this is inappropriate material, ger21 or other moderator can delete this post in its entirety.

[Arbo]

My first pine pbox, just to do it, and to get the light/dark contrast. This needs hinges to be 'done'.

[CarveOne]

Pine looks a lot better than I thought it would. My concern was that it may not take stain as well as oak, especially clear pine, which looks too slick. I suppose that it may be ok if sanded before staining.

While at Lowes this morning I picked up a piece of poplar for making one of your puzzle boxes, and a piece of oak to cut the large Celtic cross from.

[Arbo]

Pine looks a lot better than I thought it would. My concern was that it may not take stain as well as oak, especially clear pine, which looks too slick. I suppose that it may be ok if sanded before staining.

While at Lowes this morning I picked up a piece of poplar for making one of your puzzle boxes, and a piece of oak to cut the large Celtic cross from.

Yeah, it looks better than I thought it would as well. I used it to get that light wood vs. dark black stain contrast. Not sure I actually like it, I think a much lighter gel stain would have been better.

I need to pick up more wood for some more puzzle boxes, but just not feeling it now. The wife suggested a house sign for a bro-in-law with a new house in Montana.. I spent the last few hours drawing something up, was excited, thought it looked good. Showed her and got 'that look', and comments about 'house signs should have the street name on them' (which is so wrong it's crazy), so I feel a bit deflated, screw their house sign they get a puzzle.

Here's a pbox done for a niece.

[CarveOne]

I like it!

My skydiver friend wants me to make a 3D model from a photo of a famous horse and carve it onto a wood sign for his 7 year old daughter. They have a new horse. (He thinks it's HIS horse, and she won't buy that silly argument.) She will be using Chica in 4H events sometime next year.

I made this for her not long ago. The horse pencil drawing was posted here or on the Vectric site. Don't remember which. It's just 7.25" square. I'm thinking that I might try to use it for a 3D model to see if it works as a height mapped shape. If it works ok it may be useful later.

[Arbo]

Nice.

My old brain is failing me. Someone mentioned some composite wood stuff in a different thread, can't remember what it was called, and was too dumb to bookmark it.... anyone remember? I'll go look some more... maybe I'll get lucky.

Nevermind, found it, dymondwood.