dude your videos rock… I watched them all before I got my machine, and then spent weeks just practicing recreating what you did.
you’ve shown that the limit to what one builds is ones imagination and ability to think in subtractive terms… and you explain that really well
Thank you so much! It’s always so nice to hear when people like the videos.
@MindlessCorpse - Thank you, best thumbs up I’ve ever received 
@fenrus - Yep, I went down that road too, until the head-slap moment.
@gdon_2003 - I’ve used the progressive sanding process on larger projects with an epoxy pour-over and then scraping with an old credit card several times with outstanding results. These coasters were small enough that I couldn’t figure out how to manipulate them without touching and keep clean edges. Winging it with the poly is pretty good for something like these and appears to be durable, so far 
@ColdCoffee - I’ll add some details about the Nuka caps in a little bit, but yes, single sided 3D carve.
@45rpm - John, your inspiration has made a lot of chips in my shop, thank you!
I thought you might find that S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
…Here human human human…I’ve got a treat for you…
Funny that I don’t play video games but made the Nuka caps for a friends BD. I just called his wife and asked what his current favorite is, was told fallout, so went looking for something suitable for a coaster. Had no idea of the significance until he explained it to me!
But wait…I think I hear my Shapeoko calling…
…Here human human human…
I found a bottle cap STL on Cults3D.com
I’m pretty sure this STL will be usable in CC Pro, but I’m sorry that I can’t explain how. Perhaps @WillAdams has a demonstration already available?
Once the cap was in my project I did a 3D roughing with a .125 ball nose .0625 depth, .0125 stepover, 12,000 RPM 40 IPM feed and 20 IPM plunge. The finish pass was also with a .125 ball nose with the same parameters as the roughing pass except for the stepover which was .010. This resulted in almost no sanding, perhaps 2 minutes on each piece with 320 before the poly coat.
For the text I searched the the Fallout Wiki fan site and copied an image from there. It took a lot of modification to the curves to allow a .0625 end mill to fit within the confines. So it’s a close representation, but the steely eyed readers here have already spotted the differences I’m sure.
Feeds and speeds for the text cut were: 1/16 end mill, .0252 stepover, 12,000 RPM, 25 IPM feed and 15 IPM Plunge.
Here’s the DXF of the text and outside cutout:
NukaCola.dxf (373.8 KB)
Now lets all go enjoy a nice Quantum!
or skip the PNG and go direct to gcode using https://fenrus75.github.io/FenrusCNCtools/stl2nc/stl2nc.html
Finished more coasters and thought I’d post them to inspire others, not like I’m making trivets here
Not sure who drove me towards trying epoxy filled coasters/trivets more, @MikeG, @dakyleman or @Julien, but driven I have been.
Going with the hexagon/honeycomb idea, cutting a fine-walled structure - beautiful cut with a brand new down-cut 2-flute 1/8" cutter. To see if a gloss surface can be achieved, I have gently clamped the pieces down onto a glass plate, masked up the perimeter and poured a 2-colour pattern into the honeycomb.
No bleed across the glass surface - excellent. A slight swelling of each cell, having filled each one only to ‘level’ and seen some overflow, but fortunately no colour bleed.
Now to wait and see what the hardened result looks like!!
Thank you and right back at you @dakyleman 
@AndyC - Really interesting idea you’ve got going here. I’ve been considering a simulated multi-colored stained glass project and you’re now drawing me away from other projects
Looking forward to seeing your final result.
No no no no NO, don’t do that to me. I’m still recovering from a severe epoxy/coaster/trivet addiction and now I’ll have to try something like this. Sigh…
Neat idea. I’ve never tried this approach, but I thought epoxy sticks to glass. Did you use mold release? I hope this story ends okay…
Sorry…NOT!
The resin did bond to the glass, but gently heating the back side of the glass released the parts quite easily. The gloss of the glass has been captured - win. The ‘pour side’ is less of a win - ran a very fine cut to level it off, then used a (Dremel) foam pad in the 3XL with polishing compound to try and get a better finish - modest success, but not what I was hoping for.
Pleased with this, so need to think about the issues encountered and then crack on with making the rest of the set…
Round 2 now ‘cooking’. Under-filled each pocket slightly to give a meniscus effect, which makes the resin appear like old glass. Should be able to achieve high gloss on both faces this way too.
Can you guess the two colours I’ve used this time? Not ‘honey’ and not ‘jade’ like the first ones.
Wonderful!!!
@Julien is now planning his first cut glass piece. With all of the inspiration in the Old Country, I’m sure we will all be looking forward to something, well, inspirational.
