A couple new models

[Xray]

Haven't done much the last couple pandemic years, been pretty bust with work and day to day stuff but was starting to miss it [always a good thing] and have been working my way back to it. Doesn't take long to get out of practice and things that were once 2nd nature and done by reflex now takes a bit of thinking, then over thinking, but as long as the project comes out right, doesn't matter.

Decided to pay homage to one of my favorite all time guitarists Buckethead. 1st one featured a mirrored, flipped model image that was combined with the background brick texture, and some theatric masks that seem to fit with his overall weird theme. Is about 12x10 and wood is box elder, took nearly 9 hours using a 1/32 TBN and 11% stepover, the textured brick background is very heavy with Z movement and thats what ate up most of them time.
2nd one is just a bit smaller using a chunk of poplar [was surprised how expensive that wood is now, has been a while since I bought any] And this one had a plain background and only took about 3 hours. Both were coated with 2 coats of matte clear coat ,,, I would like to do a clear epoxy pour in the smaller one but am afriad I will botch it, would eat up quite a lot of material if I tried.

[keithrhyde]

Good work. You are absolutely correct about time away from the machine and the time many cnc project take to complete. I have to sit and think each time I want to do something on the cnc because I just do not use it enough. Many operations I can do much faster on my other machines. I was hoping that it would keep my tiny brain active to prevent dementia as I get older and now at 73 I find that I have slowed so much that I don't use it enough. I had a lot of great ideas when I bought the Stinger seven years ago but many of them took very long to run which makes much noise with the DC running as well. The recoil is another level of difficulty and takes much time and practice. Kudos for the work and the initiative to try again.

[Xray]

Good work. You are absolutely correct about time away from the machine and the time many cnc project take to complete. I have to sit and think each time I want to do something on the cnc because I just do not use it enough. Many operations I can do much faster on my other machines. I was hoping that it would keep my tiny brain active to prevent dementia as I get older and now at 73 I find that I have slowed so much that I don't use it enough. I had a lot of great ideas when I bought the Stinger seven years ago but many of them took very long to run which makes much noise with the DC running as well. The recoil is another level of difficulty and takes much time and practice. Kudos for the work and the initiative to try again.

Well I am 56 and will be glad to be drawing breath at 73, but I think most everyone feels that way at different stages of their lives - At 16 if you told me I'd live to see 40 I would have told you you are nuts, but here we are and we can only keep going forward, trying to make tomorrow a little better from the mistakes of today.

I started botching before I even put it on the table, bought a 2 ft x 12" chunk of poplar and set a line at 14.5, I wanted the model 14" long with .25 margin on both ends. I clamped my square to the board and made the cut, but I wasn't thinking right ,,, Has a 1" offset and I went the wrong way, so it was 1" shy and the other piece was even shorter, so I had to rework the model which I had already done after much ado. Not only that but the board home depot advertised as 12" was in reality 11", don't know why they play those games but I only discovered it when measuring for center on the table, so had to shrink the model yet again.
The machining came off ok and thats what counts. I am finally about to get a laser or 2, so that should kick me in gear for more CNC too as I think up ways where they compliment each other.