Trying to ease back into using my LongMill, I made these two pieces. The one in hickory was a custom piece for a lady I know. It used her font, and when I carved it, I didn’t need to paint the words. The shadow showed the words well. She liked it so well she sent a picture of it on her wall in the den She provided me with the dimensions.
The second one was for my bride. We had that verse above our patio door and it was stenciled on the wall. We painted over it and I carved it out of Purple Heart. Being high on the wall, I had to paint the words. I finished it with spar polyurethane to retain the color. My sweetie loves it. I apologize for the picture quality.
Both were carved with a 30 degree V bit. The font is Zapfino. I found it and imported it to my computer. Restarted VCarve Pro and was good to go.
It is good to be back at it. I have a beautiful shop that I need to put to good use.
Jake
Happy to see you stepping.. crawling back into the ol’ shop again. That first step, or maybe it was a wee limp, is so important. And you didn’t stop at crossing the doorstep either. Look at them nice lil signs.
Question, did you use a 30deg engraving bit or a true dual fluted v-bit? I have used both and found the engraving bits to break easlaly when I want to make a bit of progress. They are impossible accurate but ooooh if you push them to hard into that fibery hardwood I like to use.. better have a few on hand if you are milling out a few hunder of key chains.
Your signs look nice and crisp. I bet you hovered around when the mill was dancing those letters into the wood. It’s the most fascinating thing I have seen my machine do and I have learned that hovering around the machine watching engravings take form is the most time consuming part of owning a cnc.
So glad you are able to feel that magic again. Those days are golden. Build a rocket boy!
The bit I used is a true 30 degree V bit from @IDCWoodcraft. It was the first time I ever used the bit. It carved very clean and quite deep into the piece. What was cool is the shadow of the letters actually provided decent contrast. Here is my brides plaque without paint. If it would have been hung at eye level, I wouldn’t have had to add color to the project.
I hope you came back for some of the presentations at the Users Conference today. I genuinely enjoyed it. Maybe consider coming to the States for the live, in person conference next year? I think it would be a hoot to get some of our friends from here together. I will post it on its own suggesting it now so people can plan ahead.
