Vectric Customer

This is one of those things where Aspire gets the assist. Needed something to do with my hands today, its good therapy. I wanted to carve a spoon but I don't have the right type of gouge to carve the spoon bowl. But I do have this computer loaded with Aspire, a CNC machine, and a couple of new 1/4" ball end mills that I wanted to try out. About 10 minutes later after I shaved some wood off a stick of firewood in the basement on the bandsaw, I had a nice bowl carved. Did the rest with a spoke shave mostly, No. 3 stanley, and some scrapers. Gave it the hot water treatment to raise the grain, sanded to smooth after it dried, and gave it a coat of mineral oil and beeswax that I mixed up. I'm not 100% sure what this nice hardwood is, possibly maple.

I love that you are able to combine your CNC with your hand carving skills. Just another tool in your toolbox, as it should be. Unfortunately with most CNC users that old saying is true - if you only have a hammer, everything becomes a nail. . .

NICE organically/ergonomically(?) shaped piece sliver of FIREWOOD there Bill!!!
+1 to Russell's comment!
We've got a chainsaw/small power carvers, carver on the Shopbot forum(Brian Harnett) that built a little double mandrel pulley rig flap sander where he uses his old belt sander belts to do rough shaping and finishing of the handles on his spoons/ladles so he's almost in production mode with his "Scraps" They sell well:)
Wood butter is perfect for those.
Good Job!
scott

rscrawford wrote:I love that you are able to combine your CNC with your hand carving skills. Just another tool in your toolbox, as it should be. Unfortunately with most CNC users that old saying is true - if you only have a hammer, everything becomes a nail. . .

Haha, that is very true, and when I first got my CNC I probably got infected with that a little until I turned around and saw my other tools staring at me. I worked in a production machining environment, so CNC fit right in with that way of thinking until I saw that I could make my wood work more unique by combining CNC and hand wood working. For one of items, that's my approach. However its always nice to sell a previously fully designed item to someone and marvel how much less time it took vs. the original that included the design and thought process.

scottp55 wrote:NICE organically/ergonomically(?) shaped piece sliver of FIREWOOD there Bill!!!
+1 to Russell's comment!
We've got a chainsaw/small power carvers, carver on the Shopbot forum(Brian Harnett) that built a little double mandrel pulley rig flap sander where he uses his old belt sander belts to do rough shaping and finishing of the handles on his spoons/ladles so he's almost in production mode with his "Scraps" They sell well:)
Wood butter is perfect for those.
Good Job!
scott

Scott, so I had to go over to spy on the Shopbot forum, got in and out quickly before they saw me. Those spoons were great with that spalted wood! I like using the spoke shaves to shape and I think this one was more organic than ergonomic as this piece of wood tapered off to a corner on one end, so I made the trail of the handle follow that direction. I remembered to save the off cuts from the bandsaw to sandwich the spoon in so I could grab it in my vise. I would like to get a better spoke shave for concave carving, I have an inherited old wooden one with brass and a very thin blade that has seen its better days, but still works in a pinch.

Thanks to you both!

Wow...Memory is going

Totally different rig than I thought:(
https://vimeo.com/276648035

While there maybe check out his "birdhouse" vid and check his Bowling Ball Clamp:)
Lousy example, BUT when he sets it on the floor, and adds various extensions and clamps!!!! In the wheelchair,there have been many times that would come in handy!!

Seem to remember somebody had a chunk of spalted firewood...Hmm....wonder who that was, and if he has enough for some spoons
scott

Scott, that was the one piece I saved for that box. The rest I have warm memories of. Because of you, I went out to the wood shed with my maul to investigate on the this warm day, but this time of year there are slim pickin's. So I'll have to restrain my spoon makings to what I have salvaged in the basement for now and hope I can get lucky again when the next 2 cords arrive.

Considering I like topo's and now have tiny radius longer tapered ball noses for deeper 3D work, and HATE cutting small sections off my long slabs...
I can see half a dozen pieces I might steal from you for thick stock Bill.
(just to play with and see what's there)

Keep an eye out for Birdseye and wood that split funky
LIKE your work:)
scott
(Time to raid my Mom's woodpile again:)

So those pieces in the basement were pretty dry and are maple that I was saving for some mallet heads. I cut a chunk off one for another spoon, actually more like a scoop.

With Aspire I've done this trick before where it doesn't always have to be a block that I'm carving into. So with this scoop, I want the handle to be above the bowl. So I thought the best way to do that would be to cut the bowl out at an angle. So I cut the angle out on the chunk of maple, THEN measure it. Then when I go to Aspire, I use a two rail sweep to simulate that angle, then I add my ellipse and form the bowl which then conforms to that angle. Its a neat way to do it without spending 30 minutes of dust hogging out. So there is the bowl, 5/8" deep, carved at the angle I cut the log to. So this piece has a few interesting features, namely that nice quilting. This maple is very hard, had to use a rasp in some parts, but its getting there. so there you can see my pencil lines for the rough cut out before shaping. and that is the full rough out on the band saw.
Its mostly done now, I'll complete it tomorrow and add a picture or two.

I can see I've been preaching to the choir Bill
NICE looking chunk of log!!
They say Curly/Birdseye is one log out of a thousand in Sugar Maple, and Quilted is 1 in ten thousand....better odds than the lottery
You've got you hand work cut out for you:)
That cutoff piece will come in handy somewhere too.
Going to make a beautiful piece Bill!!

Reminds me of a fifth generation Acadian chip carver where our second Desktop machine wound up with his son in his Dad's shop...He didn't have the carving "Touch", and was absolutely ecstatic that now with the CNC he could finally carve
His Dad told me how his Grandmother had people coming from miles around to buy her spoons/utensils, as because she spent so much time in the kitchen she added little touches like lid lifters/notches so spoons balances or hung/flat spots so spoons stood by themselves/cookie molds for hanging/ladles that held the exact volume for a perfect Ployes/etc.
Tom said he never actually goes into the shop saying "I'm going to make a spoon"....as he never thinks they'll be as good as his Gram's(many still in use, and I saw several that were wonderful in the hand), BUT still he winds up making a fair amount of them
Amazing seeing him in the shop working...and now he's got his grand-daughter hooked, and first major project at 14 was a carousel horse, and his son has made a business out of the Shopbot Desktop LOVE how Tom goes out to the woodpile before one of his Grandkid's Games...splits a couple chunks off the wood pile, and then carves "Wood Spirits" during the game Didn't mean to make you WORK!!
Wells hit 96F both weekend days, with heat index 105+ even right on the beaches(THIS week will be glorious:)
NICE to see something inspiring while drinking first cuppa! First cool enough day to run the CNC with DC in a while, you got me thinking cutting open one of the White Oak burls to see what I have, or at least cut the Paper Birch to size, and surface one side so it can dry in the house and not rot in the garage(6'DX5')
THANKS!
scott

I think I'm finished for now with this one. Did the hot water grain raise, dry, sand smooth. Coated with Mineral Oil and a small squirt of Jojoba oil just to be adventurous. Then when that soaked in, the Mineral Oil and Beeswax. Clearly the wood is the star here. I could have just cut a block, finished and took pictures. If viewing on a full size monitor, you may want to step back a little, And this is my utensil collection, haha. Spoons, scoop, fork, and bottle opener. Thanks for looking.

The bowl and the back really show the grain Bill!
Should get quite a few comments once you decide what to use it for!!
Think you need a few more utensils!!
You got me thinking about the smaller pieces of Birdseye in my garage rafters!!
Good Job!
scott

200+ people checking out your woodpile!

Scott, Thanks for your encouragement! We’ll see you up in Maine one day.

Anytime Bill
If you're feeling ambitious bring your Muck boots and a cruising axe....Beaver's raised the pond a foot 2 years ago and root killed another acre of trees.
Fire of '47 burnt all the land here to ashes, so most Maples are 10-12" Diameter. I've been watching 2 Curly Maples from the 10 yr old section of pond gradually decompose, and on beautiful spalt is 40' from door.
Those 2 yr old standing dead wood Maples are JUST beginning to lose their bark, so easy to tell grain...there's 150' I can't see along the pond on my land..might be something neat?
And there's always the Apple trees:)
NO chainsaw's because of the pond, but lots of saws here:)
Just mentioning...I LOVE to watch OTHER people work
If you just want to jaw and see Tiny stuff...That's great by me....I make a mean cup of espresso!
Time to play with second half of my smallest burl.
Hope your 2 cords is all figured!!
scott

+1 on the spoons.

It's that most wonderful time of the year when we look at that pile of cut-offs in the shop and think "save or burn?" lol.

No, actually I look back at some of my projects and think what could I add a little variety to and have a good selection of Christmas gifts to hand out. So this year its the spoon and I've made it into a smaller serving spoon, cut from a 3" x 10" x 3/4" cut off which I have many of, and I've added a spot at the end to add various carved elements. This was done one sided on this one and I enjoyed finishing the back with a coping saw, spoke shaves, and card scrapers. I will work on the back so I can do a two sided machining and multiples of this.
.
The front took about 30 minutes to Aspire. 4 tap files, rough 3D, finish 3D with 1/4" ball mill, then recut spoon end with carving with a 1/16" ball end mill, then profile cut it out. Rough 3D 6 minute cut, finish 1/4 12 minutes, finish 1/16 7 minutes, profile about 5 minutes.

I'll probably be making about 20-25 more. Happy with the protoype. After first sanding, rinse in hot water to raise grain, let dry then sand again. Photos are after mineral oil and Jojoba oil application. Finally will add mineral oil and bee's wax polish. This hold up well to use, and these are meant to be used for sure.