Some more CNC assisted work from my shop

[ajcoholic]

I know I am not the most active on this forum (the last thread I had was a year ago, a walnut table and 8 chairs set) but I thought I'd share a few things I have recently done with my Shopbot Buddy Alpha BT48, with the 6' powerstick. This gives me a 48" by 48" work surface which has been very useful in my furniture shop.

First up - a curly maple rocker (inspired by but by no means a copy of one of Sam Maloof's). The seat was done completely in Aspire and cut by my Shopbot in about 40 minutes using a 5/8" spiral ball end Onsrud bit. Eventually I would like to model the arms and crest rail. But for this one I did those the old fashioned way.

[ajcoholic]

Secondly, a large slab-top table in African Mahogany. For the legs, I used a 2 rail sweep to model the profile. Cut 16 pcs out of 8/4 stock (28 1/2" by 6") and then mitred the edges and glued up 4 legs. Aspire makes jobs such as this so easy, and quick to get a sample pc carved up and shown to the customer for the sign off.

[ajcoholic]

And a large (8 foot by 18" wide) carved seat bench to go with the table. AGain, 2 rail sweep. The contours and cutting were done in less than 2 hours. That saved days of hand work.

sample cut

[ajcoholic]

And of course, many smaller jobs almost on a daily basis (here are just a few basic examples)

Some things like the cut outs in this plywood garbage pail holder for a kitchen



Or these decorative bead cuts in this protective glass and wood frame railing





or this walnut square vessel



After two years and a month using Aspire, and my Shopbot - I am still finding it more and more useful as time goes on, as it allows me to price out and build jobs that a few years ago were too labour intensive to be profitable.

[signmarketingman]

very nice stuff, very nice...

[rscrawford]

Very nice! Love your rocker, and especially your choice of wood. I'm interested to see how you model the armrests and legs. I started a thread here somewhere that shows some maloof style rockers I made that had all the parts modelled (or the forms modelled) in Aspire.

[zeeway]

Beautiful work...the rocker, the bench, the table, all of it. Thanks for posting.

Angie

[ohiococonut]

Beautiful work!

[Leo]

I have no problem at all when woodworkers tell me that CNC takes the "heart and soul" out of woodworking. To me they are simply in a state of "innocence" and have absolutely no vision as to what can be done with CNC and a highly skilled programmer operator - along with a bit of help from a great CAM system.

This thread and the samples shown here - to me - are the epitome as to what can be achieved.

To use the tools available - and the ingenuity of the mind to create something unique and beautiful.

I call this - "Craftsmanship"

[Fleming]

Couldn't agree more with your statement about "craftsmanship". I have been doing woodworking for over 40 years and can honestly say that with CNC and Vectric my woodworking has become far better and much more creative

Keep up your postings - I learn a lot from your sharing. Thank you.

Paul

[gdb]

Great work, The rocker is over the top.

Must be nice to have a great Imagination.

[armbrusterco]

Outstanding work! I enjoyed everything but the way you used the curly maple puts the rocker over the top.

Thanks,
Bob

[berzerko]

I have no problem at all when woodworkers tell me that CNC takes the "heart and soul" out of woodworking. To me they are simply in a state of "innocence" and have absolutely no vision as to what can be done with CNC and a highly skilled programmer operator - along with a bit of help from a great CAM system.

This thread and the samples shown here - to me - are the epitome as to what can be achieved.

To use the tools available - and the ingenuity of the mind to create something unique and beautiful.

I call this - "Craftsmanship"

leo
I could not of said it better myself

terrific work love the rocker, are the legs tapered? or is it the material you machine out toward the bottoms
I was suppose to do a camp in aspen with maloof didn't go still regret it

[ajcoholic]

The front legs are tapered - they are actually tuned on the lathe up to the part that attaches to the seat (the Maloof joint).

The rear legs are cut on the bandsaw and then shaped by hand (I use the drum end of my edge sander and clean up with rasps).

The legs are very flowing - and I doubt I could get the shape I want with the CNC. They are not just flat with a round over, they are shaped more like an ellipse and vary in thickness. I know it could be done but I dont think it would be faster.

The seat is where the most savings are done (45 minutes on the CNC saves me about 4 to 6 hours hand carving and sanding & shaping) and much more accurate.

The crest rail is easily modeled, I have done others in the past where I am not doing just one unit.

The arms are where the CNC would also save me much time. If you look at them, they have quite a complex curve to them, like an S from the inside, and an arc from the outer edge. I was going to make one and either get it laser scanned or probe it myself.

[ajcoholic]

A few more chairs I am working on, African mahogany.

Man if nothing more than just to carve out the seats - that saves me several hours of tedious work.