Here is my latest piece in Ash, which I had never used for any project. It machines nicely and I like the finish. This piece was carved using Carveco Maker, gSender and an .STL file. Two toolpaths were used. A 6.35mm straight sided 2 flute cutter and a 4,9 degree .25mm radius ball ended cutter. Feed speeds variable from 500mm/min to 3000mm/min and every stop in between.
No tearout was evident which means that the Ash wood is suitable for machining. Router speed was 10,000RPM. Stepdown was 1mm per pass and each tool used a 40% stepover. Plunge speed was 250mm/min. Only finish applied was a creme mix of walnut oil and beeswax in a single brushed on coat.
Lesson learned. Avoid using highly figured wood if finely carved details are to be seen. A wood like maple would probably have suited this project a little better.
@jepho Nicely done, Jeffrey. I agree with your lesson learned statement. I too have played with species like oak and ash and found that their grain pattern took over the piece. It can be hard to know for sure until the final finish is applied and the grain “popped”. I did one side of a complete chess set in oak that sold me on my terrible choice of wood as soon as I applied oil. (They did make great fire starters, though.)
Thank you for posting and for the machining details.
Thank you, Grant. Your comment is much appreciated. I have almost completed assembling the video which I will post a link to soon. There was a question asked by @Rstd2005 and the video will help to portray how to manage tool changing for a multi-tool job, without using a tool measurement device. The link will appear hear some time this afternoon (GMT).
No worries. If it helps other folk to see a way forward, so much the better. As promised, here is the video clip concerning the carve shown above. It may help @Rstd2005 to get to grips with changing tools in a multi-tool carve, without a tool length measurement device.
