🎉 Introducing Carve Days – Follow Along & Carve With Us

:tada: Welcome to Carve Days!

Here at Sienci Labs, we’ve started setting aside dedicated Carve Days where team members step away from their regular work, fire up a machine, and build a project from start to finish. Sometimes it’s a practical shop accessory, sometimes it’s a decorative piece, and sometimes it’s simply an excuse to learn a new technique or experiment with a different toolpath.

Carve Days aren’t about making perfect projects—they’re about making time to create, try new ideas, and continue learning. Every project teaches us something, whether it’s a new CAM strategy, a better workholding method, or simply a reminder to double-check where we set our zero.

That’s exactly why we’re sharing these with the community.

Rather than only showing the finished result, we want to share the entire experience. Along with photos of the completed project, we’ll include the design files whenever possible, and anything we learned along the way.

What you’ll find

Each Carve Day is a little different, but we’ll share as much as we can, including:

  • :file_folder: Project files (VCarve Pro, SVG, STL, and other source files when available)
  • :camera_with_flash: Photos from the build
  • :hammer_and_wrench: Tools and materials used
  • :light_bulb: Tips, tricks, or lessons we learned along the way

If you’re using VCarve Pro, you can open many of these files to see exactly how the project was designed. Carve them as-is, customize them to suit your machine or style, or simply use them as inspiration for your next project.

Carve Day Project Library

All of our Carve Day files can be found here:

:open_file_folder: Carve Day Project Library

We’ll continue adding new projects as we complete them, so be sure to check back from time to time.

Show us what you make!

If you decide to carve one of these projects, we’d love to see your version. Post some photos, tell us what you changed, or share what you learned along the way. Whether your project comes out exactly as planned—or takes a few unexpected detours—you’re in good company.

Happy carving!

7 Likes

:evergreen_tree: Project #1 – Wildernest Sign

Created by: Rebekkah (Packaging)
Experience Level: Beginner

For our first Carve Day, Rebekkah created this rustic cottage sign for Wildernest. As someone with very little CNC experience, this project was a great introduction to designing, toolpathing, machining, and finishing a project from start to finish.

If you’d like to make your own version, all of the project files, tool information, and supporting resources are included in the Carve Day Project Library.

:inbox_tray: Download the Project Files
:open_file_folder: Project Files:

6 Likes

:baby: Project #2 – Charlotte Nursery Sign

Created by: Liz (Engineering)
Experience Level: Beginner

Liz created this personalized nursery sign as a gift for her daughter. One of the best things about projects like this is how easy they are to customize—change the name, font, colours, or wood species to create something completely unique.

As always, the complete project files, recommended tooling, and additional information can all be found in the Carve Day Project Library.

:inbox_tray: Download the Project Files
:open_file_folder: Project Files:

6 Likes

:rocket: Project #3 – Xander’s Rocket Ship

Created by: John “JR” (Packaging)
Experience Level: Beginner

JR’s first Carve Day project was this personalized rocket ship sign for his young son. It was a fun opportunity to learn the complete CNC workflow while creating something that can easily be adapted with different names, colours, or themes.

Everything needed to recreate or customize this project—including the design files and project notes—is available in the Carve Day Project Library.

:inbox_tray: Download the Project Files
:open_file_folder: Project Files:

7 Likes

Rebekkah, Liz and John,

Congratulations on your first projects made on one of these beasts. I remember my first steps after finishing building my longmill. All was fun and play until having to taking that dive. Pressing start for the first time on that massive powertool had me sweating at places I did not know I could sweat. I opted for a simple two stepped pocket carve of the sienci sheep in some isolation foam. I took the save route. I dipped a toe for a second and said “whiiii!”.

You guylls went head first into the deep and with amazing results. I salut your courage, your creativity and your new found itch to make more, dive deeper and maybe even get one of those amazing machines for yourselves.

A special kudo for the one(s) who came up with this awesome special assignment day. I now wish I was Canadian and work at sienci even more!

Happy carveday to all of you good people at Sienci.

4 Likes

Awesome work! And I agree with @Spamming_Eddie that whoever came up with this idea should get a bonus. I have always kind of thought that Sienci staff might be getting a little out of touch since they were not actually “playing” with the machine enough. When you actually use the machine for projects then you can see the little problems that the customer runs into on a regular basis. Maybe also try unpacking and building a machine from scratch and then you can find out how outdated the videos are or how the instructions do not always reflect what your getting in the box etc. (Don’t go to the inhouse staff if you have a problems! Go figure it out like the customer has to do: Youtube, Forums, Ai, etc.)

I also liked Charlotte’s project a lot. Very nice =)

1 Like