Here are 14 Stations of the Cross made of hard Maple and will be mounted in the church next month replacing some old ones. This project was really fun and I pushed the limits of my bits. I was able to do 14 full carves of 12”x12” blanks without the bits going dull.
Another project this month is that I combined my CO2 laser with a walnut frame carve. The laser artwork took much longer than the frame. But I think the two machines together was a match made in heaven =)
@Karver_One I’m not much of a religious person but that is very nice work. Your 2.5D carves are especially impressive. I’m sure your church will appreciate that very much.
And even though the CNC does most of the carving work, I know there is still a lot of work required. Sourcing the lumber and making the slabs, finding or making the model and planning the carve, setup and monitoring, finishing, etc. I’m sure a lot of time went into making those.
Wait. Hold on. Seriously? You’re telling me the “Old Station” is being replaced with the “New Stations” that you carved? Those are epic and massively expressive.
What did you use as the basis of the “bas relief” carves? They are extraordinary. Like @Chucky_ott , I’m not particularly religious, but even I can see that those carves totally vivify a hugely important thread in human history. It is very nice work indeed!
Awe-stricken. And the VM frame restoration project: same.
Thank you both. I know its not super technical stuff but it really has been a big hit. People seem to love seeing wood carvings in general. They have a wonderful natural feel to them. Of course religious items are the biggest sellers (although I do not sell mine, I just donate them). I just read that among the new generation, religious bible sales are up 134% in the UK. If you are looking for some income these items may be up your ally. All in all the CNC time was about 140 hours and the glue up, sanding, design work, wood sourcing, laser engraving, and lacquering took another 40 hours. But of course I could do many projects in between while the Altmill was running.
@The_Unknown_Bassist The are tons of CNC files on ETSY. They usually sell them for ridiculously cheap. I have a 24TB drive with just loads of files. The only down side is that I had to buy Aspire 12.5 so as to use more than one model in a project. That’s how they get you. I believe the cost was around $2k USD
Here is a March Project update. I did not get as much carving in as I would have liked to. I was working on a statue that has really taken up tons of hours. I also have had some problems sourcing wood this month. Seems like no one was selling too much on Marketplace. And of course one neat highlight was that my new dust shoe came in!
@Chucky_ott Thank you =), I wish I had a rotary that big. Btw did you get the new dust shoe or anyone else here get one? Its definitely different from the old one.
I have a 3D printed dust shoe. It has suffered greatly over the last two years and I really need to re do it. I will use the new Sienci design as inspiration. I never actually used the dust shoe that came with my Altmill, it was just too cumbersome.
