First try at a deep relief carving.

[Bruce]

I got to try out a fairly deep relief carving.  Looking for thick cut wood can be a challenge.  I ended up finding some pieces of an old waterbed side rails that my mom was throwing out. 
It was decent wood and it worked for what I needed.  I made a couple videos of the process.  The rough cut was done with a 1/4" end mill.




For the finish cut I bought a long tapered ball nose from Precise Bits (1/16in (0.0625 in, 1.59 mm) end cut dia.  2-flute 3.6° Tapered Ball-nose Carving bit, 1.50 in. max DOC, 1/4 in. shank, 3.25 in. OAL)  It was just about too long.  I had to push it up into the collet as far as I could get it to go.  With the Z axis all the way up (about 3 mm from the limit switch) I had just about 5mm of clearance above the top of the workpiece before the rough cut.  But after the rough cut it wasn't too bad.  




When I got through with the finish cut I found I had a screw hole in the moon!  I'll try and fill it in with some wood filler.  I'm still thinking about how I'm going to finish this piece but 
I'm happy with how it came out, and on the first try at that.  

[Derek the Admin]

I'd say that's a pretty successful project. I'm interested to see it finished out. I think all the features would pop with something like a jacobian stain.

[maury]

Love it! Relief carving is so rewarding. I haven't done anything that big yet, just my pendants. I, too, would like to see your results when finished. Congrats on a job well done.

[aa]

Very nice! I hope to try that someday.

- AA

[VGCustomShop]

Well done - nice! Wonder if a guitar body could be carved that way . . .

[maury]

I got a couple friends that are metal guitarists. I know they would just love 3D reliefs on their guitar body...or maybe a crushed stone inlay for the design. Thinking like the monster on the US cover of Uriah Heep's debut album. I'm soon going to experiment with colored mica inlays on my pendants.

[Bruce]

After watching a few YouTube videos on painting techniques, I decided to paint the thing and see how it would come out.
I'm pretty pleased with the results.

[maury]

WOW! Thank you for sharing this. Beautiful.

[ricko]

Cool what kind of paint or stains did you use?

[Bruce]

I just used cheap acrylic craft paint. I bought a 12 pack from Home Depot. www.homedepot.com/p/DecoArt-2-oz-12-Color-Acrylic-Craft-Paint-Set-DASK353/205803542
I used Varathane Wood Stains, dark walnut on the edges and light oak in the lower center.
The rest was mixing colors and playing with shading.

[kevin]

That is some great CNC work and your finishing work is simply amazing.

[HolmMade]

Awesome Project! Where did you get the file for that carve? Did you purchase or design it yourself?

[Bruce]

Thanks, I bought the STL file from Etsy or Ebay for couple bucks. I'd have to take a few Blender lessons in 3D modeling to do it myself. Not in the cards right now.
Really is amazing the number of relief files on Etsy and Ebay that are available.