Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) => Topic started by: ergoman on September 29, 2007, 01:22:24 PM
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Greetings. Just want to show the celtic cross I made using AutoCAD LT and LazyCAM. The cross was cut out and pocketed by LazyCAM. That left me with only the fun part: cutting the knotwork. What used to take me a couple of days, now takes me a couple of hours.
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Nice, very nice.
Do you mean the knot work was done by hand.
Graham.
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Sort of... What I made with the CNC kind of looked like a waffle. I'll post a LazyCAM screen shot so you can see. I used a 0.0512" single flute carbide cutter in a dremel. The CNC did all the pocketing down to 1/8"and outlined everything. The pockets in the circle were entirely done by the CNC. I used to have to do that by hand and it is very time consuming and difficult to do consistently. The only thing left for me to do was carve along the pattern to make some lines go under and some lines go over. I could have pushed the CNC to do that too... but that's the fun part for me. It would need to be full 3-D and I'd have to draw it in something like Rhino 3-D and cut it in multiple raster passes with something like FreeMill. That would take more time and the straight lines wouldn't be as straight unless the number of passes was very high. Also, with something like this, if it is done by a machine it just looks too perfect. :)
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Good Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brett
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looks good ,what did you do for the finish.
bill
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Brilliant
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For the finish, I just used a couple of coats of clear polyureathane - sometimes I'll use Tung oil... but that takes longer. Thanks much for the encouragement, gentlemen!
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I want one. Not that I'm a religious artifacts type of guy.
But it looks good.
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Funny you should mention it... I've just sold that cross on e-bay for $41.00. I'm trying to fund this expensive hobby of CNC. :)
Thanks for the compliments, gentlemen! We've got ourselves an excellent hobby here! BTW here is a picture of what the CNC gives me.
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Brilliant design !! What software did you you use for the design of the cross?
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Thanks much! ;D For the cad design of this cross, I just used an old version of AutoCAD LT... something called QuickCAD. I found a design I liked, and converted it into .dxf format. I am converting everything over to RhinoCAD 3-D slowly but surely.
For years I've had that design. In my pre-CNC days, I'd make the lines dark and photocopy a printout of the *.dxf file. Then, I'd put a clothes iron on the highest setting and proceed to transfer the design to the piece of wood I was carving. Then, I'd take tiny chisels and cut out each square and try to keep the depth consistent. Once that was done, I'd get the fun of making the knot-work weave over and under. Nowadays, the CNC does the part I hated... I've still got the fun part, and I've got my cross in a tenth of the time. Thanks much!
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Execellent work, good blend of old/new school to have a quick but still unique part .
Drew