Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
1
Wife saw a wedding plaque on social, asked me to make one for our friends upcoming wedding.
Being a practical sort, I didn’t see much utility in a plaque. No matter how beautiful, its gonna end up in a closet or worse. So, I decided on a tray instead. Sure, it’ll end up in a cupboard at some point but at least it’ll be dug out on occasion to serve up some wine and appetizers.
I drew up the tray in Fusion, simple 16" diameter, 1/2" rim, set up CAM and cut it out.
Set up the lettering in VCarvePro. The font for the “I” in the middle is something called Goudy and can be found here: https://www.dafont.com/goudy-initialen.font The other letters are an Edwardian font I already had on my computer. All letters, design cut with Amana 60 degree,1".
Finish is BLO topped with Tung/limonene 80/20 mixture.
Nice ! I did not quite get if you carve this out of >1/2" stock ? That must have generated a LOT of chips
When I do trays now, I usually pour epoxy resin in the carvings, for anything that will see food/crumbs/will need to be wiped clean. But for a serving tray like that, seeing the grooves is better.
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Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
4
Not yet, need to read up on it a bit.
Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
5
Sorry, meant to mention 8/4 Sapele, 3 piece glue up. Hogged out 1 1/4”, leaving the bottom of the tray 1/2” thick.
You know that Goudy font almost looks 3D in your tray. Did you do anything special?
I downloaded VCarve Pro 10 and it has nice improvements over the previous version. I made calculations using @julien’s F&S calculator and now you can make the same calculations in VCarve and it shows the chipload so if you make a mistake in entering your F&S, like missing a decimal, you can see your mistake. I tried photo VCarve with mitigated results, maybe it is the wood the picture or paint I used. I will have to play with it some more, I think there is a lot of trial and error involved to get good results.
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Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
7
I have done wood working for a long time. Projects that you make and give away are your pride and joy when you finish them and give them to the recipient. However once given you must remember that no matter how fancy an item is in the end it must perform a function. When the item is no longer functional to the recipient your beloved project will wind up in a land fill. It is the way of the world and you should expect that your project will some day become unwanted and/or unloved. We like to think that if we have made an heirloom project it will be cherished and kept in a place of honor forever. The reality is most of the projects you will make will eventually be discarded or wind up in a box or back of a cabinet not fulfilling the purpose you intended it for.
Do not despair over the the eventual demise of your project but rejoice in the feeling you had when making the object and the joy the receiver had when given to them. Do not worry about what eventually happens to your work just be glad you were able to make it.
3 Likes
Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
13
Well said Guy! And so true, live in the moment of creating and giving, then, on to the next project!
I’ll never forget my first “woodworking” project, a wooden cable spool lovingly “distressed” and modified by myself and my wife into a piece of resined “art” to be enjoyed in the living room of our 1 bedroom apartment. Then, in ‘75 I think, gifting it to a hippy chick friend living in a shed in Leucadia on some property with an ocean view. And hearing about it being bulldozed into oblivion when the property owner destroyed the shed.
Ah well, such is life.
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Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
14
Just found your VCarve post, that must have been a lot of work! I’ll be cutting some of these in future, thank you.
Yeah, I downloaded the Gaudy font and following Gary’s @wb9tpg comment, I opened VCarve Pro and created a project with one Goudy letter. I think it had some 45 intersections I needed to fix. Not sure if there is a trick to make this easier than cutting each segment and manually dividing them in two but it certainly looked daunting especially if you do the whole alphabet.
Interesting… I too downloaded the font and used the letter F dropped straight into Carbide Create as text. Carved really well at about 4” x 4” with a 90deg Vbit. Absolutely no modifications necessary and looks fine… no missing detail that I can spot.
I wonder why vcarve has problems? Or was I just lucky with that letter?
Looks great, but I think you made a Dual purpose gift. Yes it is a beautiful tray, but with a keyhole slot on the back I would hang that on the wall when not in use for all to see.
I thought I’d take a moment to share this site that I found a while back. I am not sure if I have posted it before, but if so, I apologize for the repeat.
