Can this be done?

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Liendeni
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Can this be done?

Post by Liendeni »

Don't laugh...but here is what I want to do: I want to perform the female part of a traditional inlay on the enamel of a Megalodon shark tooth and then fill the vcarved inlay with pyrite or other material so there is a design pattern on the display side enamel of the tooth. I own a fossil company and I purchased my first CNC about 2 months ago...but it's going better than I expected so far. Do you salty guru's think this can be done? My issue is the fact that the enamel is already curved...and a predetermined curvature. I am trying to envision how one might go about doing this. I don't need a matching mirrored male part since it would simply be filled with a mineral of some sorts.


Hey...a new challenge perhaps? I've include a pic of one of my Megalodon teeth for those of you who are not familiar with this material. I wouldn't start off with trial and error on a tooth this nice but you get the idea.

Appreciate any help...Garry
Attachments
Inlay.jpg

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highpockets
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by highpockets »

That's a BIG SHARK!!!!

You'll have to make a model of the area of the tooth you want to add the inlay to or another option would be to look at a program called G-Code Ripper https://www.scorchworks.com/Gcoderipper ... ipper.html .

Here's an example of carving on a pumpkin.
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martin54
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by martin54 »

Simple answer is yes it could be done, if it can be done cost effectively is another question altogether & one only you can answer.

Your 2 main problems are mounting & holding the material on the cnc, making one simple jig is unlikely to work as I am guessing each piece is going to be a different size & shape. You might be looking at having to make something for every piece of material you carved.

I am not familair with the link highpockets added but have seen it mentioned before. A touch probe would map the surface of the material & then allow you to machine what you wanted on to it.

Worth experimenting but the time involved with each piece of material may make it a bit expensive :lol: :lol: :lol:

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newmexico
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by newmexico »

We would do that with a hand-held router.
Some things are best by hand.

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mtylerfl
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by mtylerfl »

You could have Brady Watson scan the tooth and create a perfect replica model to use in your project layout. His website is http://www.ibild.com/
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Liendeni
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by Liendeni »

This is great! Really appreciate the feedback and I saved all the links and websites. I'll keep you posted if this can be accomplished. Really appreciate the time for the input...thanks guys!

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mtylerfl
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by mtylerfl »

Garry,

Do you have a website where you sell some of your fossils?
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Liendeni
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by Liendeni »

Hello, yes, I own InvestmentFossils.com but my site is pretty much sold out. I'm also the #1 fossil dealer on ebay so our items sell pretty fast there....just to time consuming to try and keep up to date on both, the website and ebay, so I chase where the money is and right now it's on ebay so nothing on the website. Thank you for your earlier reply and comment to try and help...much appreciated. Thank you!

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mtylerfl
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by mtylerfl »

Very interesting, Garry! I enjoyed browsing your site. Will return later and check out ebay later on, too.
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highpockets
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by highpockets »

Had a good laugh, on EBay your Shark's Tooth it's listed as "USED" :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Jim_in_PA
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by Jim_in_PA »

You could get the tooth 3D scanned to get a "Model" to be able to conform your v-carving to. As long as the multiple teeth you would engrave are close in size and contour, you should get a good result. Brady Watson is one resource who can do that scanning. Without some kind of model to follow, the v-carving is going to assume a flat workpiece and the image will "fall off" as the object's contour falls off, or even disappear at the edges if the curve is great enough.

Great project, however!

prevel
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Re: Can this be done?

Post by prevel »

Just wanted to say thank you for posting a link to G code ripper! wow can't believe its free but glad it is!

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