That’s a nice way to do it. I like the removable aspect, although I’ll probably just get a t track mounted to the front someday.
You could cut simple shapes as tenons too, but I imagine it’d just look like an inlay at that point.
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Yes indeed, it does look like an inlay, but a functioning inlay. The next tunnel in this rabbit hole leads to trying various shapes like maybe hearts or hexagons. Maybe alternating shapes. 
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Hearts on a little wooden ring box is on my short list as well 
I’m thinking bloodwood and ebony should make for a very handsome end product.
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This looks great. I really like the way you set up the 4020 so you can remove it if necessary.
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My wife is from Ecuador and I’ve always loved the country. When you’re around Quito (the capital city), there are mountains everywhere. I found a website that you can select a box of anywhere in the world and output STL file files of the topography. I got a good square that starts exactly at 0 degrees latitude and goes down about 60 miles and covers most of the famous mountains in the region.
I started with a 1/4" roughing bit (Yonico) then went into an 1/8" ball nose to clean it up. Finally I ran it over night using a .030" ball nose bit with a .010" step per pass for a total of 10+ hours. The African Mahogany gave me some issues with ‘fuzziness’ that took well over an hour to try to clean up by hand. I had to use some sandpaper and some toothpicks to get down in the crevices. Finally, I used a small paint brush and Odie’s oil to finish it. This process by itself took a long time as you need to apply VERY little then really rub it into to every surface with the brush. All in all I’ve probably got about 12 hours into this 10" x 10" x 2.75" piece but it’s absolutely incredible. The detail is wild. Let me know if you’ve got any questions!
Site is listed here: https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/
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Looks Amazing! All that work really paid off
I put a couple of coats of primer and then a couple white as a base coat for this HDU sign.
Even though this HDU was 2” material to start the base layer is about 3/4” given the way I did the carving.
This is going to be mounted to a post and I didn’t feel like it was going to be sturdy enough so I devised a base plate.
I glued up 2 sheets of 1/2” PVC and cut a pocket in it for some pieces to form a bracket for a 4x4 and then cut the profile.
I put the pieces in and tested with a 4x4. Pretty snug side to side. Those pieces are held in with PVC glue.
Then I added a back cover for it. Oh, and I drilled holes in the side for lag screws.
The sign is glued to the PVC with a version of Gorilla Glue. It’s pretty heavy now and should survive unless the PVC has a thermal expansion issue that causes the glue to blow up. Time will tell, but I think it worked out really well. Now the base is about 1 5/8” thick.
I will post some final pics when the customer has it painted and installed.
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What a beautiful carving!! I’ve not gone to a .03" bit before but I will try it now.
Will you share the website where you had the STL generated?
Not bad for my first time. Almost flipped perfect…… a lot of watching maybe I won’t watch as much the 2nd time.
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Very cool! Solid body electrics are on my wishlist for this year. Just need a machine large enough to pull it off!
Maybe pitching a machine to redo the kitchen cabinet doors would get the necessary buy in 
Either way, I’ll be watching what you accomplish in the meantime. Keep sharing, it’s great inspiration 
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I’ve been playing around with putting a pattern on a curved surface and figured I would try the standard honeycomb in a tray design. It took me a while to figure it out but now that I understand how to do it a little more I’ll be trying it on some other things… that is if I remember how I did this one 
@Redlander Oh and before you ask Tim…Yes it’s mahogany 
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LOL! And a gorgeous piece it is, the pattern wears well on it. Nice Job Jeff!
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Did you make the pattern?
How did you get the pattern on the curved surface? Can you give the steps you took?
Thanks. Bozo
2d or 3d carve? Pretty awesome!
@osban911 - Yes I used the polygon tool in CC. I think there is a ready made file on CutRocket though
@Bozo - If I remember right …Overlay the honeycomb on the tray in the design tab. In the model tab create a flat base the thickness of your material. Model the tray round, subtract to whatever angle works for the material size. Then select the tray and honeycomb and model them the same way.
@SirGariff - Thanks, I did it as a 3D carve. It’s not a very big tray but it took just under 4 hours to do. I think the estimate in CC was around 3.5 hours. The finishing pass was a 1/8 ballnose at a 10% stepover so that took a lot of time … but I didn’t have to do any sanding what you see in the pic is how it came out.
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Nothing fancy. Needed a something to organize cylinder head parts for work. I work for a Honda dealer and they have somewhat recently started making the shift to hydraulic lash adjusters and we aren’t used to having all the parts and pieces to deal with.
I may end up making this two pieces and moving the cans to the middle of each tray.
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I don’t know about Honda but where I used to work before retiring there was a continuous improvement program where if an employee submitted an idea, new process or tool they could be “rewarded” with a percentage of cost savings based on time or material reduction.
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That in HDPE (because oil) looks like it would be a big winner. I’ve only worked with Subaru and older V8 engines, but that tray looks like it would really help techs.
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I’ve got some 1” hdpe. The plan was to see how it works first. Much more cost effective to use plywood to test.
I’ve got one torn apart at work right now waiting on warranty company, parts are on back ordered anyway so I’ll throw the parts on it when I have time tomorrow when I get back.
The oil isn’t really a concern to me anyway. Will just protect the wood motor oil or linseed oil both work.
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