CNC Shark Forum

Hello again. Still carving round edges on bowls.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, I'd like to share a few new ideas and improvements.

In the picture at the bottom you can see the black plastic protractor-like device. In making a smaller bowl, I decided I didn't want to drill the 6 additional locating holes, just the center one. Still carving the 60 degree sections, the protractor helps me locate it with simple pencil marks as I rotate clockwise.

Also a notch in the top gives the exact location of X0. The aluminum angle is aligned with the X axis and is the main element for clamping and bolted to the top of the T track. The protractor has a bottom ledge that gets bolted to the bottom of the T track.

Make sure your edge designs use the center for 0,0. In this bowl with more detailed carvings on the edge I wanted to use a 1/16 ball end mill. This necessitated a 3D roughing tool path. With Aspire, the roughing tool path assumes a block for the start point. You can use that if you don't mind carving a lot of air. What I did is a trick I adopted from something I read on the forum once. I created a 3D finish tool path with a 1/4 inch ball mill. I used a 30% step over. The trick is to set your Z zero then raise it .020" and reset Z zero. This leaves .020 for your final cut. The roughing cut takes only 3 minutes with no air cutting.

I'll post some shots of these bowls once they are finished.

Awesome concept... just keeps getting better and better.

Roger

One more on this subject. Carved two more bowls in the butterfly theme, this time with the edge fully carved with butterflies. These are red oak and using the new fixture as seen above.

These are for my nieces who lost their Mom to a brain tumor and planted Butterfly gardens in her honor.

Bill,
That's a very thoughtful memorial.
Great job!
I'm sure they will be deeply appreciated.
Bob

Nice ones Bob. Great work like always.

Tony

Just noticed that the PDF instructions I added here have been downloaded 800 times. I'm truly amazed by that!

Now, let's see some of those round edge carves!

Check this every once and a while and now see we are at 900 downloads of the PDF. Amazing!
Happy edge carving!

Bill
I will download it but it will be a while before I can get around to carve it
Too many doctors' appt. at the moment.
Thank you for the file anyway.
Cheers
Wolffie

'Tis the season to carve round bowls. Here's another bowl I "turned" on my shark. My company has a Yankee swap every year, so this bowl features a bearing lid and the company's subsidiaries initials on the outside. Same techniques, this bowl with a 6 inch diameter and carving in 72 degree increments.

You are a CNC genius. I see you use the aluminum angle quite a bit Bill. Your work is outstanding and I hope I can emulate your work one of these days. So much to do.