difalkner

Ditto on the Walnut. Looks like some I just bought. David

I'll also chime in and welcome you to the forum, Adam! We'd love to see some photos of your work, assuming you can show them. I regularly spray Nitrocellulose lacquer, do French polish, and have done some gold leaf overlay. Past that I don't know much at all so count me in the group that is eager to learn. David

We have the HF unit with Wynn 0.5 micron filter and it has worked well for us. I only run one machine at a time and move a 20' clear hose to each machine as needed. I have overhead ducting going to the CNC and just switch out the hoses at the DC when needed. However, the '2'HP motor is right at the edge of what most household 120V 15A circuits will handle and while ours works ok I have read many times of breakers tripping. Just putting in a 20A breaker isn't smart if the wiring in the wall wasn't designed for that load. I would rather have all 240V equipment in the shop and most of ours is, but the budget at the time dictated getting the HF with discount coupon. I upgraded to the Wynn filter a year later and it is far, far better than the 5 micron bag that comes with the unit. If I had it to do over I would look at the Grizzly if for no other reason than I could run it on 240V. But at this point I'll keep using the HF until it dies. David

I have a couple that I'm still deciding what I want to do with but I'll probably do something similar to what Coop did and just soften the edge and straight cuts. David

Closer to the 0.001" to 0.002", Mark, when I'm doing smaller things like guitar bridges out of East Indian Rosewood or Ebony. On larger items, like Baltic Birch Longworth chucks, it's probably in the 0.005" to 0.010" range although I can only check accurately out to 6" with my dial calipers. The last time I checked at 6" it was within 0.003" to no more than 0.004", depending on what I'm cutting. Harder woods like Walnut hold to tighter tolerances where the softer woods tend to spring back after the bit passes making it harder not only to hold tolerance but to check measurements. David

Here's the video - David

Absolutely! David

Yes, definitely!! Did I mean to do that? Absolutely NOT!! I have made several changes to the toolpath profile for cutting the Longworth chucks and all for the better. When I started cutting them 100 chucks and almost a year ago the feed was 125 ipm, 18k rpm, 0.125" depth of cut, with a 1/4" downcut spiral bit. These chucks are 1/2" Baltic Birch and I knew this was conservative but I tend to stay on that side. I have slowly crept the speed up to where I am now cutting chucks at 250 ipm and all the other specs are the same except depth of cut is now 0.2". When I opened the file for the 16" chuck I realized it was still at 200 ipm for the outer profile, with tabs, so I changed it to 250 ipm. Or so I thought... What I actually did was replace the '2' with '250' and didn't delete the extra '00'. My new feed rate was now 25000 but since I thought I had overwritten the 200 all I did was hit Ok and went out to the shop. Everything cut just fine until it got to the outer profile. The ramp was at 250 ipm but when the cut reached the 0.2" depth it jumped up to 600 ipm, which is the max setting I have on the X & Y steppers. I was in a mild state of shock for a second trying to figure out what had happened but it cut around that 16" circumference so quickly that all I basically did was watch it cut. And it cut perfectly! The 3kW (4HP) spindle didn't blink at what I had inadvertently thrown at it, the bit was cool when it finished, and the edge was just as clean as it could be. I don't plan to move any future cuts to 600 ipm but I have to say, now that it's over and nothing broke, it was fascinating watching it cut that fast! This Saturn frame is one stout and rigid CNC setup! I have a camera in the shop but the output is proprietary and requires its own player. If I can figure out how to export that to something I can upload to YouTube I'll show y'all. David

Ah, yes, a long way from me. He may be closer to you, actually. David

Photos? Where in LA? I'm in NW LA. David

It just occurred to me as I looked at the photos that I didn't mention, nor does it show, but the figured Walnut border on the lid is angled 7.5°. I cut those strips about 1/16" thick and then had to miter them at the corners. With very thin veneer that's pretty quick and easy but with pieces even 1/16" thick that has to be a compound angle. Came out ok, though. David

A friend builds some very nice custom knives and we've been talking about a collaboration on Etsy, for him to build the knife and me to build a box. He didn't have a knife ready but I built a box anyway. And I built a knife... The box is Walnut with Figured Walnut accents and Red Palm handles, finished in Nitrocellulose lacquer. The knife is Curly Maple, Red Palm, and Figured Walnut, finished is French polish Shellac. Enjoy! David

I haven't done hammer veneering in the last 20 years, matter of fact it was probably 30 years ago the last time I did that. Neat process and glad to see how well you made it work out. Excellent job! David

I've been buying from Certainly Wood since they opened but I'm in Louisiana so the only buying I've done is over the phone, mail order (back in the day... ) and now online. I'll have to check out Berkshire Veneer - thanks! David

Very nice work and a worthy project! I've never tried a G&G style but have always liked it, may have to give it a shot on some piece. David