Vectric Customer

I know what you mean phil, wenge looks dark and slightly sinister so the subject does fit well here.
I have run the gamut of wood I wanted to try with this, alls that is left is thick plexi and I am dreading that. Am also going to try a clear epoxy flood fill on the 1st one, I'll post back with results unless its a disaster.

Here is the evil twin of the 1st walnut posted [sold quickly], came from the same slab of wood.
Could have made is slightly bigger but I had to avoid that nasty knot/crack towards the bottom, as it is it came out a little larger than the 1st anyhow. I usually secure slabs like this in just 2 corners, this one was a bit wobbly so as you can see, I screwed it down in all 4 corners... And left just enough waste so I could shave off the holes and still have a nice frame. Had some slack on the bottom but perfect centering was required for the top & sides.

Some really nice grain patterns, almost looks burled in places.

True to my word, I filled the 1st one with clear epoxy .... And, it is filled with epoxy !
Looks nice I guess, still tacky after 2 days and I'm getting worried, instructions said the limit for 1 layer was .25 and parts of this are probably twice that, plus I had it in a cool basement, so hopefully it will cure soon.
Overfilled a bit, very easy to do. I'll try slicing off the overfill with a razor once its cured. Will probably end up having to sand the whole thing down then refinish, it is discolored where the epoxy has run over. Not sure there is much of a purpose to this, sure does add to the weight of the thing.

Also another walnut in the making, for some reason the last couple cuts lift the Z after each line, turning a 6 hr cut into more like 7.5. That last section that needs finishing, maybe 2.5-3", will take nearly 2 hours.
You can also see my improvised hold down jig, saves me from having to secure it with holes and having 1" of waste. You can see a strip of plexiglas screwed into my jig board, there are also one at the bottom and one at the far side ,,, I just use a couple of screws to secure the last side. Only piece I have to remove for different sized projects is the top one, the other 2 remain in place for good.
Does require perfect centering, looks like I'm pretty close there.

Walnuts are still my Fav
scott

After doing no fewer than 7 without a hitch, had a major error tonight - Just barely went through, you can see there are no machining marks on the board.

Don't know what happened, if I simply went too deep, then why only on 1 side ? That side must have lifted or something, don't know. Everything was squared & level, wood consistent - Came from the same slab as the last one I did. So now I'm thinking, I either have to add some kind of snazzy background to fill in the cutout ,,, Or cut out the model on a scroll saw then inlay it into maybe poplar, I'm leaning towards that. I have a hair thin spiral blade for the scroll saw that will easily cut the model out, faster and neater that I could do it on the CNC.
It will just be a matter of cutting out a good inlay pocket, perhaps easier said than done with a model like this.

Also did the plexi the other day, this is 3/8. I shied away from using thick plexi [1"] because I thought this model would kill my bit. Even with a roughing pass there are many areas the roughing bit can't reach on this model, such as the edges of the cape. So my tapered ballnose would have been making many deep, solo cuts, I don't think it would have survived.
Came out decent, I did forget to mirror the model. Also some nasty machining lines towards the top, did the same exact thing with the 1st wood model, which of course were far easier to sand out. Tried to sand them out best as I could then a couple flame polishes. Will post a shot when I get it lit up.

Salvaged the botched piece, took the easy way out. I simply sliced a thin cut of walnut with my bandsaw and glued it on the back, matches up pretty good.
Makes me think I might overcut intentionally some time, then glue a contrast wood on the back ,, Would be kinda like an "outlay", as opposed to an inlay.
Other pic shows my 3 walnuts side by side, botched one on the right.

Nice recovery on that last Walnut

Yep, necessity is the mutha of invention !

Got my plexi lit up, looks pretty good, machining marks aren't too obnoxious.

Looks good XXray. Nice finish on the walnut and the plexi came out good too.

tony

the finish on the walnut look awesome.

regards

Brian

Yeah its some good stuff.
Costs twice as much as average clear coat, but worth it for special projects that you really want to pop.

Hey the plexiglass version turned out pretty nice. Did you manage to get the whole piece lit up?

Xxray,
Really like the plexi too with the led's my only criticism not reversed to match the others, but you have me interested enough to try one myself.
What's it like cutting Plexi any tips?

Phill

Well yeah, the whole thing is lit up, you can see the top edge is lit. May look dim on a pic, to the naked eye it is very bright in the dark. It will naturally be brighter the closer the model is to the LED's towards the bottom.

Many threads about machining plexi, here is one
http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php? ... 54#p152954

Here is 1 more variation recovering from a botch.
Couldn't keep this one in the poplar wood block, so I cut out a pocket in mdf that it fit in. I sanded it flush then filled in the hairline crack with wood putty. Sanded that, the put an iron patina on the mdf, followed by a clear coat on all.