Bill you are rocking it or at least wheeling alongš
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Jim, that looks great! How are you finding the hard wax oil in general? I tried Osmo and was not encouraged to write home about it.
Jim
how do you release such small pieces from the main stock board. in other words are you using tiny tabs than cutting parts out of the board? Or are you using double sided tape underneath to hold the parts in place after machining/
I used double sided tape (no tabs) to hold the inlay stock to my CNC table. I found with the very smallest parts (the eyes mainly), they would occasionally release after being cut as their was just not enough surface area for the tape to hold them that well (the larger parts were fine). Once they were free, the router fan would scatter them around the shop and they were too small to every find again. I found that if I cut to a depth just few thousandths less than the thickness of the inlay stock, a little light sanding on the bottom of the inlay stock would release the parts quite easily. This approach also had the benefit of not getting any tape adhesive on the 1/32" bits that I would need to clean off.
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I like Rubio for small projects - I havenāt tried it on something like a desk or large table. It goes on stupid easy. Just rub it on with an applicator pad and wipe it off. Same day drying although you can handle it in 15 minutes. You can also get satin or gloss finishes out of it. Just need to put a 2nd coat and buff it for a gloss. I like satin finishes so donāt generally do that though.
Itās not cheap. Itās $50 for about a pint & almost $200 for a couple of qts. But it doesnāt take much. The tray is about 9x6 and I just needed 4ml of finish. Although at that rate I could do almost 100 of trays like this for $50.
My other go to finish is thinned lacquer - 25 or 50% thinned with alcohol. Dries in 10 minutes for recoating. I can build up 10 or 12 coats pretty fast. No brush marks because it self-levels and virtually melts the previous coat when applying the next one. Canāt screw up a lacquer finish 
I like Rubio for things that will get a lot of use with people touching it as I think itās a harder finish.
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Gift for the Hunting club founder and friend, after carving the MDF ended up leaving it as is. Loved the textured look of it. And since I hate sanding SCORE!! Loving this machine, quick 45 min carve and piece is about 11"x14"
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Thanks, Jim. I appreciate your thoughts. I use Emtech WB lacquer over their sanding sealer and color for cabinetry. Believe it or not, even though it is WB, it does melt one layer into the last. the sanding sealer does raise the grain on first coat so there is the hassle of de-fuzzing. I guess I am just getting ready for when the rest of the country follows California and either prohibits solvent based finishes or makes it close to impossible to get/afford them. Naptha is a key component in slot car racing. My friends in California have to drive to surrounding states and risk getting busted at the agricultural inspection stations when they bring a gallon of the stuff back with them.
Jim
I thin the lacquer with isopropyl alcohol (vs denatured which is classed as a solvent). The very thin first coat takes care of sealing it so no need for a separate sanding sealer & no raised grain problem. Then I use the less-thinned mix for the rest of the coats.
Iām in CT and weāre part of the Northeast clean air compact which tries to copy the CA regs but a year or two later. I donāt think theyāll outlaw rubbing alcohol though
This is my first attempt at creating a chess piece and doing a 4 sided carving. This is the first piece of a Dark Egyptian chess set that I am making for an Ancient Egyptian themed chess board. This is the Bishop done in cherry wood with a Danish oil finish. I did a roughing and finishing cut for each of the four sides. I will try and post pictures of the other pieces as I create them.
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How? Soooo many questions.
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It was carefully laid out so the middle of the relief was in the middle of the material. Then I rotated it 90deg and saved it. Created cuts for that. Rotated 90deg and repeat until all 4 sides where done. I did all the roughing first then went back and did the finishing.
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Very nice. Big project ahead of you.
Did you do a roughing & finishing pass because it was faster than doing just a finishing pass with multiple bits (assuming youāre using VCarve)? Iāve found for what Iām doing itās actually faster to define just a finishing 3D carve and then using 1/4 down to 1/16 or 1/32 tapered ball nose bits as the tools so I get all the toolpaths defined at once. Iām wondering if there are cases where define a separate roughing 3D operation is useful now.
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Very big project. This took 4min to rough each side and 20min to finish each side so almost 2 hrs with setup and moving everything. I just used 1/4 to rough cut all 4 sides and then went back and did each sides finishing pass. I did the face side twice to make it more crisp and so I didnāt have to sand much. I am using carveco maker+ so not sure if there is a more efficient way in vcarve.
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Ah.
VCarve also provides a roughing 3D operation as well as a finishing one.
The roughing one is limited to one tool and does as much as can be done with that toolās profile.
Their finishing 3D operation allows you to have several tools defined and it will automatically create toolpaths for each tool setting them to do as much as each tool is capable of physically doing. As each tool gets more precise it skips any cutting that could be done by the previous larger or different profile tools.
Once VCarve supported multiple tools in the finishing operation I havenāt come across a need for their roughing operation.
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Carveco + is similar with a rouging and finishing paths for 3d. It does not use rest machining instead its tool paths can be stacked and transformed to the level where the last tool finished allowing for as many transformed tool paths as needed. Carveco + you can select which tool path you want to transform from so it can start at any of the tool levels it finished from before although I find that one maybe two finishing passes is all I ever do.
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John,
Looks fantastic what is your process for cutting, drying and finishing the cross section ? What are the dimensions,and species?
Thank you
Dave
John Is that an inlay or is a piece on top of the wood?