Hi everyone! Thanks for posting the beautifully painted projects you’ve created on the LongMill.
We are happy to announce that @Coug58, Keith Marx, @KenDoCerations, Thomas Andrew, Richard Bertrand, and @Louvp are the painted projects contest winners. Watch out for a prize!
Join us in exploring the globe! Share your LongMill projects inspired by the world for a chance to win prizes in this week’s contest. From landmarks to culturally inspired projects, show us what embodies different parts of the world!
Visit our blog for more information on our Weekly Themed Contest:
Weekly Themed Contest Rules and Guidelines:
Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!
I received a picture on my cellphone of a clock made from an old 33-1/3 rpm record, along with an inquiry as to whether or not I could duplicate it on my new Longmill CNC machine. The design was kind of an abstract wild horse head. It looked fancy and impressive but, turned out to be a good beginner project that was not difficult at all.
I imported the file to my computer and converted it to a .bmp file, then loaded it into Vcarve and scaled it to the actual size I wanted to make it, which was about 12" across. I traced all the vectors to be cut with the “Draw curve” tool. I then, made sure there were no open vectors and moved on to creating tool paths.
The only tool path needed was the “profile tool path”. I cut the outside of the outline vectors of the clock and cut the interior vectors on the insides. I used a 1/16" down-cut end mill bit for all the cuts with recommended spindle speed, depth per pass, and inches per minute. I used double stick tape to secure the work piece to the spoil board in such a way as to prevent any cutout pieces from coming loose and possibly being thrown by the router bit or causing damage to the bit.
I decided to do a trial run on an piece of scrap wood so, I re-sawed a .125" slab from a piece of laminated mahogany cutting board scrap. After sanding it to a uniform thickness, it ended up .100" thick. I applied a thick coat of epoxy to the finished trial piece and put a clock movement into it.
This is the end result: a tribute to the “wild mustangs of North America”.
