I love this CNC machine! This past week I used my Elite Foreman to cut out this beauty of a paddle!
I just posted the files on my Etsy page, and on the CNCFiles.com site.
I’ve always wanted to make a paddle. I figured it would be a great tiling exercise, but when I realized that it would fit diagonally on a 4’ x 4’ bed, I couldn’t help but give this project a go immediately.
I designed the paddle based on the shape of one I already had and loved, but added some slight changes I always wished this paddle had.
I have some, but not much experience doing full 3D surfacing on a large part like this. As with most things, once I got through it I sat back and said “well… that’s wasn’t really that hard.”
Went to my local wood dealer and bought a board of Cherry for the project. I considered laminated several woods to make those fancy multi-material paddles, but thought I better keep it simple for this first one. Also, I thought it would be even more painful if I messed it up and lost all that work laminating the pieces together.
I’ve been programming and CNC machining my whole adult life, and this was enormously satisfying to see the paddle take shape. Especially when the ball nose cut the complex surfaces. Total runtime was about 2 hours. I was pretty conservative with my feeds and speeds.
After cutting, the ball nose leaves small ridges that need to be sanded out. Fortunately it doesn’t take much sanding and is very satisfying to watch the paddle take it’s final shape. I used an orbit sander for the job.
I applied a coat of West Systems G-Flex 650 Epoxy. Which feels like a bulletproof finish. I was a bit torn on whether I should have just used a linseed oil, or something else to help preserve the feel of the wood. The epoxy feels tough, but also like hard plastic.
In the back of my mind, was the potential to add this to my collection of digital files on my Etsy store, and CNCFiles.com. While waiting for the finish to dry, I got all the files together and posted the project up!
For this project, I posted all the usual 3D and 2D file formats that go along with all my projects, but I also created a simplified set of G-Code files that others can use to run this part without the 3D programming. I ran it on my Gen1 Elite Foreman, but I did my best to keep the G-code nice and simple so it would run on as many controllers as possible. I also created a 10-page PDF set of guidelines showing the details I used to get the project done. It doesn’t quite show every single step in the process, but does tackle all the details that I had to think of while lying awake in the middle of the night.
Specifically, the steps to run the G-Code in the digital download are pretty detailed to help newer CNC users tackle this project with confidence. Like where to set X, Y, and Z, how to lay our the material on the spoilboard, and how to manage flipping the part and running the backside.
I found just about every step in this project very satisfying. I’m already thinking about how I’ll glue up different wood species on my next one. I would love to see how other CNC’er paddles turn out!