3D Wild life carving

[Mick Martin]

Here is my latest project, it's a 3D carving for above a door. The design is from Vectric Wild life DVD.
Material is African mahogany 1 1/8" thick, 34" long x 10" high, the 3D carving is 32" long x 8" high.
Roughing toolpath was done was a 1/4" end mill - machining time: 2 hours.
Finishing Toolpath was done with 1/8" taper ball nose - machining time - 4 hours 10 minutes.
Total machine time was 6 hours 10 minutes.

At present there is no finish applied and I am thinking of doing a glaze finish. see glazing finish tutorial by Tim Merrill

http://mickmartinwoodworking.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Glazing.pdf

[mezalick]

Mick,
Looks great.
A few ideas as an experiment

Use a 3/8" for the rough cut ( 500 feed / 300 plunge )
use a 1/4 straight ball nose for the finish ( 500 feed / 500 plunge )
and try the resting procedure that is shown in the new Aspire tutorials.
use a 1/8" ball nose ( 500 feed / 500 plunge )
If you don't have that I can explain it.
It took of 2 hours off a 6 hour item I am working on.

Michael
PS on 3D work the feed rates will never get to 500, but it adds to the safe cutting speeds.

[Mick Martin]

Thanks Michael,

I will run it in Aspire and see what the time difference is. I was thinking of doing rest machining [wink]

[JeffW]

Nice tip Micheal, I also have been carving mostly wildlife scenes and have been looking for ways to speed up the time without reducing quality or harming bits. I don't have a 3/8" bit yet but will be getting one on order and giving it a try.
Thanks, Jeff

P.S. Great looking carving Mick.