Most of what I did was run of the mill carpentry stuff. Tons of trim jobs and flooring, paneling, etc. Lots of deck building and steps/handrails, etc. And tile…soooo much tile. Occasionally I got to do some neat stuff, and I will be glad to post some in this thread. Give me just a bit
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I had been interested in that material that for a while- The sales rep here says of Forescolor; “unfortunately there isn’t a distributor in Northern California. I have product shipped directly from N. Carolina for my jobs.”
So it’s doubtful I’ll ever get my hands on much, without shipping sheets cross country.
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They must literally buy it from the exact mill I do. Its just a hop over the mountains for me. I think as far as west coast is concerned…during my search I remember stumbling upon a company called “Trinity Innovations” based out of California. They sell Valchromat mdf in various sizes (I think they have an online store). It is essentially the same material as Forescolor.
I see many sources out here for Valchromat .
Amazon wants $ 13 to ship a $ 15 pce. of material. No Prime for that .
There are plenty of other sources though.
Thanks
That is where I started. Decided to see what I could order from them outside of Amazon and it led me to their website.
If you have any trouble, I would be willing to send you a chunk or two. I would like to see the end result of that skyline as I was born just inland from SF. Maybe a trade is in order… some mdf for a relatively ready to cut file? 
I just ordered samples from Trinity.
Will advise when I try it out.
Thank you for the referral.
Bamboo .75" 3 ply and solid strand is my preferred material, but at $ 300 / sht.
I need to prove the tool paths in most of the complex cases before cutting.
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Wow! How did you get such a nice, smooth glossy surface with the orange? Fine sanding and then spray paint?
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Thanks @The_real_janderson! A thin coat of sanding sealer applied to the raw MDF (in this case 3/4" thick black Forescolor) with a foam brush, sanded with 320 grit, and then spray painted. I am lazy and hate cleaning my spray guns, so I tend to use a lot of off-the-shelf spray paints for color.
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You might look at the Critter spray gun, I’m a total hack when it comes to finishing but the Critter just works. Cleanup involves spraying whatever solvent is relevant thru the siphon tube and done.
Love this thing.
RMW
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Brilliant! Added to my Christmas list.
Thanks for the tip
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006FRPJ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QVI1FbHA1KVC7
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@Griff another thing that works well is the Preval Paint sprayer too. It works best for thinner liquids and is great for touch ups and small jobs without much cleanup.
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I have a Critter and love it. It is WAY easier to clean than my HVLP gun. The ability to just have mason jars full of whatever at the ready is awesome since you can just leave finish in them with a lid on.
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Welcome to another episode of Monkey SeeNC! I hope you all stayed safe and had a good holiday!
Had some fun playing with a drag engraving bit:
And thanks to the awesome STL2PNG tool created by @fenrus, I was able to make a pretty neat centerpiece for a cribbage board:
Now it is time to hop off Mr. 2020’s wild ride. Wishing a better 2021 to all the members of The Church of Chips!!!
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Hey Scott;
I’m guessing the newer versions of your city scapes are laser rather than cut into the material, correct? It’s very uniform which is probably a bit tricky-
Must be a whole lot easier and faster than machining the fine detail. All the work is super clean though. Really nice work.
Happy New Year to you.
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They are laser engraved, @aaronz. The laser has been a little tricky to get dialed in beyond basic engraving, but I think that is due to my complete lack of knowledge surrounding laser cutting/engraving in general than say a fault of my inexpensive laser. I am looking forward to doing some portrait engraving once I can spend some more time “playing” with it. And now that you mention it, I need to check the engraving time vs my shapeoko on similar sized projects. Overall, I dont think my low power laser will be winning any races. I have enjoyed using it to add logos/text to projects made on my shapeoko, and playing with cross-hatching and stepover/line interval to “shade” logos.
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Fun project for a local auto shop:
Single flute for the win.
As always, everything was done using CC and CM. Until next time, stay safe out there folks!
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So how are making the spark plug light up. In the spark plug it looks in the star shaped spark that there is both a green and white portion as well as the RM. So what kind of electronics are you using and I suppose led.
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@gdon_2003 , the lights are just regular white 12v LEDs hooked up to a RF remote module that has a couple of preprogrammed patterns. I think the module was $8.99 on Amazon. Runs off a 6000mah battery pack. I found some LEDs that are packed pretty tightly for that “continuous” look. The cutout areas have 2 layers of acrylic, one translucent lime green and the other transparent “neon” green. I did this to give those areas more depth/character when the LEDs aren’t turned on.
Here is a shot of some test cuts I made. I ended up using a thicker piece for the neon green acrylic and chamfering the edge to catch light:
LED setup:
I wanted to keep everything serviceable/replaceable so the back plate is secured by m3 screws and threaded inserts. And there is a small plate held on by magnets for quick access to the charging port and power switch.
@jepho , no inlays here. Just layering of different stain colors after cutting. Full inlays would be too involved for the price point. I would imagine you can execute inlays better than I can as I have done very few. (and I call myself a woodworker, ha! 
)
Here is a closer look:
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