I am giving a presentation for my Woodworking club on Saturday. The subject is 3d illusions in woodworking. I will cover tumbling blocks, quilting patterns and a few other 3d objects. Here are a couple of examples.
The cross is from a youtube video. The cross was just cut on the tablesaw but the backing plate was cut on my SO3. The material is cedar and the finish is Watco Danish Oil Clear.
This cross would be very hard to clamp up. So I used CA glue to hold the pieces together. Then I cut out the backing and used wood glue and screws to secure the cross.
The key to making the cross is all measurements have to be exact or it wont fit together. The width of material has to be 1" and the miters have to be 45 degrees. The backing was just a pocket and a contour cut. You could leave the center solid but I also cut a pattern of a star to go on the back. I used plywood but it is just too delicate to use. The tips of some of the rays broke off. If I used solid wood it would likely work.
Had I used the star I would have painted it white or light yellow. It was cut on my SO3.
This was just made with a 2x4. It came out ok but I had to glue it together in pieces so as errors accumulated it got worse. However it is just an example of some of the things you can do to fool the human eye.
Looks great. There’s a fellow I watch who gives out free plans to most of the projects he builds and this woven cross is one of them. Just look for “Who’s The Voss” and you’ll find him. He reminds me of my younger brother.
Cut on my SO3. I bought the pattern from Alex Fox (https://alexscrollsaw.com/) on the internet. There are many nice patterns on the site. It is really a scroll saw project but scroll saw crosses over very well to a CNC.
My cross was a hit at my woodworkers meeting. I gave it away. So today I made another one. I had trouble gluing up the first one. So I created a jig to hold the cross together. Simple but effective.
Not sure how many more I will make but I will keep the gluing jig for a while. The MDF base was just a random piece laying around the shop. That is why it is skewed because I did not want to waste a good piece of “scrap”.
