An unusual Cross

[CarveOne]

I recently designed and made this Cross for one of our local pastors who also runs a facility in Tarboro, NC that helps with storm damages in eastern North Carolina, The red oak wood, cane weave,and rope each represents something religious, and the rosette flower represents the volunteers who come from churches in various states to do cleanup and repair work for those in need. The Cross is 11-3/4" tall, 3/4" thick and there is a small plaque that describes what each component represents. It is now installed in the facility's office and is shown to the volunteers who arrive. I also make small crosses from leftover woods as gifts to the volunteers.

CarveOne

[highpockets]

Beautiful craftsmanship and with a very special meaning.

Thanks for sharing.

[mtylerfl]

Now THAT is a beautiful cross, Richard! Very nice!

[dwilli9013]

very nice. Like the explanation of the different facets. Thanks for sharing.

[scottp55]

BEAUTIFUL job and backstory Richard!!
Congrats!
scott

[Creation in Wood]

Nice work

[CarveOne]

Thanks everyone.

I double checked the dimensions and it is actually 15-3/4" tall. I got a call from the pastor this afternoon and he requested that I make a bunch more for another reason. They will probably be less tall so that I can make six of them on a 72" board to save on the costs. The design might be modified from this one.

CarveOne

[TReischl]

Excellent detail. You always do nice work.

[CarveOne]

Thanks Ted,

This facility is not very far from you.

I'm thinking of making the cross smaller, and use an oval dish model merged with the cross. It would be on a rectangular board that sits on a table instead of hanging on a wall. I plan to create the Aspire CAD file for it even if that is not what they want this time. Can't do it right away due to two other sign projects that need to come first.

CarveOne

[SteveNelson46]

You do very nice work and this is a fine example of it.

[CarveOne]

This is what I had in mind. This is on a 10" long piece of standard 1 by 8 red oak lumber. The cross is 8.9" high. Nine of them from one 8 foot board keeps the cost down, and it sits on most tables with a dowel pin in the back, or it can have a mounting tab or key hole on the top rear. Only the cross will have my usual dark gel stain treatment.

CarveOne

[BillK]

Will you switch to a smaller bit for everything, or use two different, one for the cross, one for the dish? To maintain the details this might take longer to carve than the original. Always struggle with the cost balance vs. the wood used. Machine time costs also. Very nice design.

[CarveOne]

Will you switch to a smaller bit for everything, or use two different, one for the cross, one for the dish? To maintain the details this might take longer to carve than the original. Always struggle with the cost balance vs. the wood used. Machine time costs also. Very nice design.

Hi Bill,

I currently have it set up for one 3D finish tool path using a 1/16" diameter tapered ball nose cutter from Precise Bits at 250 ipm and 10% step over. Estimated cut time is 1 hour 52 minutes. It starts cutting at the right side edge of the dish where it is shallow and moves up and down the board length while stepping over, so that there is not much side load at the maximum depth. The cutter is very rigid anyway. Only the dish area and the cross is cut. I have a similar 1/32" tapered ball nose cutter that might give better detail in the cane weave but it will take more time to cut it. An option is to make a second tool path with the 1/32" TBN cutter only on the cross area, as you mentioned, but I doubt that it will be worth it. I can speed up the feed rate to compensate if needed.

CarveOne

[Holzarbeiter]

That is a beautiful cross and a heartwarming story to boot. Not only do you do great work but for a great cause as well.
Bless you!

[CarveOne]

Thanks Joe,

I plan to cut the first one this afternoon to see how it goes. I have finagled the cut time down to 52 minutes. If it turns out well enough I might be able to finish it and give it to the recipient as early as Sunday morning.

CarveOne