We don't really post our work here, much, but it's nice to see what everyone's doing, from time to time. Parts that are boring to us can be fascinating to others, and sometimes we might see a problem we're having solved in cool ways. I'm starting this thread in hopes that everyone will post some of their stuff here from time to time.

I'll lead off with some little parts I cut the other day. They're patterns that'll be used to make molds for casting jewelry. A local craft store has a classroom space, and when they found out I had some casting experience, they wanted me to do a class. So I'm gearing up for a "How to Cast Pewter in the Kitchen:101" class. If it's popular, I'll probably end up doing bigger, hotter classes in my backyard, for aluminum and bronze. (Lol, crafters are a lot like gold prospector/miners. They'll pour enormous time and effort into it, for little reward. The way to make money is to throw up a shack, and sell them blankets, whiskey, and hip waders.)

These are cut from some hard cherry I had on hand. The blocks are 3" x 3" sq. for scale. The little rose is a .stl I bought a while back, but the others I cooked up myself, with BabCAD/BobArt. The conical thingies are the risers where the metal will be poured in. (Or wax, for doing lost-wax investment castings.) The cross was the first I cut, and it has some minor issues that I designed out of the next two. It was finished with a 1/16" ballnose. The others were finished with a 1/32" ballnose, to get the tiny details. The texture under the little celtic design is made with an [Emboss Texture] <From Image> using a picture of pebbles on the ground. The parts are shown straight from the machine. I needed enough detail that it basically negated most of the need for sanding.

This job was the first time I really got deep into V26's DMS, and I can really see why all the machinists were so fired up about it now. Most of my stuff is signs, etc, but when I cut two of these from one board, I wound up with 11 features, and the management tools were just wonderful to use.

Luke