Post by mirthmgr on Dec 18, 2017 8:42:32 GMT
My girlfriend and I had our Christmas tonight, as I'll be out of town for the actual day. So, I can safely share these now (not that I necessarily thought she'd come across this forum, but it doesn't hurt to play it safe).
First off is a cherry blossom pendant, hairclips, and earrings set in gaboon ebony:
And a close-up on the pendant:
And the same design in redheart:
A collection of pendants, all the same design. From L to R, they're cut in olivewood, bocote, redheart, black palm, and gaboon ebony:
A moon pendant. I'm not too sure what wood this is. It came from the scrap bin at Rockler, and I neglected to take a shot of it before I gave it the resin coat. It now looks nothing like any of the stock pieces I've got, and they all have basically the same size holes cut out of them, so that's no help. I'm pretty sure it's either granadillo or padauk. The resin fill in the moon is (somewhat faintly) glow in the dark:
A couple of carved pendants (one of my first attempts at 3D carving instead of just pockets and contours). They're amaryllis flowers, but they kind of look like the Federation and Romulans joined forces and mashed their logos together. I'm still pleased with how they came out (there are veins carved in the petals that are a little tricky to photograph). The left one is East Indian rosewood, the right is lacewood (I rounded the edges a lot more on the lacewood, because it is incredibly delicate and seemed like it would break if you sneezed in the same room):
Another pendant in redheart. This is the one I ended up cutting way too many times before aforww helped me figure out that I had a loose coupler:
This heart pendant in lacewood was my first 3D carving attempt (it's not easy to see in the photo, but the surface of the heart is very rounded):
Finally, a gingerbread man pendant (or tiny Christmas ornament). It made me giggle when I changed tools for the contour operation and saw my board of poplar with a smiley face on it:
I recently got an order of a lot of different woods from Bell Forest so I could see how different woods are to mill. All of these milled pretty well, some surprisingly so. Some of my impressions (partly so I can refer to this later):
Gaboon Ebony: VERY hard. Mills beautifully, but I nearly broke the bit in my pin vise drilling the pilot holes for the eye screws. I did break two eye screws when I was attempting to screw them in. It does interesting things to colored resin; in the 8-petal set, they all have the same bright yellow pigment in the petals, and the ebony turned it very green. I don't think the cut surface got a touch of sandpaper before I gave it a finish.
Lacewood: Pretty darned soft. I accidentally drilled all the way through it with my pin vise (it punched through when I applied pressure, before I even gave it a turn). It mills reasonably well, but requires a decent amount of finishing work afterwards. It looks AMAZING with a resin coat. The different grain colors become iridescent.
Redheart: Mills very nicely. It isn't nearly as hard as the ebony, but it comes out with a finish nearly as good. I think I spent all of 2 minutes doing some detail sanding.
East Indian Rosewood: Also mills beautifully. It takes details incredibly well (the veins on the amaryllis pendant are about .25mm thick, and they came out crisp and clean).
Olivewood: I see why it's regarded as one of the best woods for carving and milling. For as pronounced as the grain is, it had a really smooth finish straight off of the Carve King.
Bocote: It didn't mill quite as well as the olivewood, but it didn't require much cleanup. Just a few minutes with a needle file to take care of some tool marks.
Black palm: This was the biggest surprise for me. I gave it a try on a whim, not expecting very good results. As I was milling, I thought I was right. There were shards coming off of the stock; it looked like it was breaking instead of cutting. After I vacuumed the dust, though, everything that was milled looked great! It needed some cleanup, but not nearly as much as I anticipated (and less than the lacewood). I love the way the end grain looks.
Poplar: This stuff came from the big orange store. I'm not a huge fan. It ends up with lots of fuzzy edges, more so than any of the other woods I've tried. It's cheap, so that's a plus, but I don't think I'll be picking up any more. The amount of filing and sanding I needed to do for a simple piece was pretty nasty.
Pink Ebony: I didn't end up with any usable pieces, as I was experimenting with it while I had coupler problems (I should have saved it and used the poplar, but I didn't want to re-do all of my extrusions and toolpaths for a different thickness of wood while I was troubleshooting). It might be the best milling wood I've tried. It has almost no visible grain, and ends up feeling like a light stone. I can see why they call it "ivory." I'm definitely picking up several more pieces of it after the holidays.
I've got blanks for another dozen or so species, which I look forward to trying after Christmas.
First off is a cherry blossom pendant, hairclips, and earrings set in gaboon ebony:
And a close-up on the pendant:
And the same design in redheart:
A collection of pendants, all the same design. From L to R, they're cut in olivewood, bocote, redheart, black palm, and gaboon ebony:
A moon pendant. I'm not too sure what wood this is. It came from the scrap bin at Rockler, and I neglected to take a shot of it before I gave it the resin coat. It now looks nothing like any of the stock pieces I've got, and they all have basically the same size holes cut out of them, so that's no help. I'm pretty sure it's either granadillo or padauk. The resin fill in the moon is (somewhat faintly) glow in the dark:
A couple of carved pendants (one of my first attempts at 3D carving instead of just pockets and contours). They're amaryllis flowers, but they kind of look like the Federation and Romulans joined forces and mashed their logos together. I'm still pleased with how they came out (there are veins carved in the petals that are a little tricky to photograph). The left one is East Indian rosewood, the right is lacewood (I rounded the edges a lot more on the lacewood, because it is incredibly delicate and seemed like it would break if you sneezed in the same room):
Another pendant in redheart. This is the one I ended up cutting way too many times before aforww helped me figure out that I had a loose coupler:
This heart pendant in lacewood was my first 3D carving attempt (it's not easy to see in the photo, but the surface of the heart is very rounded):
Finally, a gingerbread man pendant (or tiny Christmas ornament). It made me giggle when I changed tools for the contour operation and saw my board of poplar with a smiley face on it:
I recently got an order of a lot of different woods from Bell Forest so I could see how different woods are to mill. All of these milled pretty well, some surprisingly so. Some of my impressions (partly so I can refer to this later):
Gaboon Ebony: VERY hard. Mills beautifully, but I nearly broke the bit in my pin vise drilling the pilot holes for the eye screws. I did break two eye screws when I was attempting to screw them in. It does interesting things to colored resin; in the 8-petal set, they all have the same bright yellow pigment in the petals, and the ebony turned it very green. I don't think the cut surface got a touch of sandpaper before I gave it a finish.
Lacewood: Pretty darned soft. I accidentally drilled all the way through it with my pin vise (it punched through when I applied pressure, before I even gave it a turn). It mills reasonably well, but requires a decent amount of finishing work afterwards. It looks AMAZING with a resin coat. The different grain colors become iridescent.
Redheart: Mills very nicely. It isn't nearly as hard as the ebony, but it comes out with a finish nearly as good. I think I spent all of 2 minutes doing some detail sanding.
East Indian Rosewood: Also mills beautifully. It takes details incredibly well (the veins on the amaryllis pendant are about .25mm thick, and they came out crisp and clean).
Olivewood: I see why it's regarded as one of the best woods for carving and milling. For as pronounced as the grain is, it had a really smooth finish straight off of the Carve King.
Bocote: It didn't mill quite as well as the olivewood, but it didn't require much cleanup. Just a few minutes with a needle file to take care of some tool marks.
Black palm: This was the biggest surprise for me. I gave it a try on a whim, not expecting very good results. As I was milling, I thought I was right. There were shards coming off of the stock; it looked like it was breaking instead of cutting. After I vacuumed the dust, though, everything that was milled looked great! It needed some cleanup, but not nearly as much as I anticipated (and less than the lacewood). I love the way the end grain looks.
Poplar: This stuff came from the big orange store. I'm not a huge fan. It ends up with lots of fuzzy edges, more so than any of the other woods I've tried. It's cheap, so that's a plus, but I don't think I'll be picking up any more. The amount of filing and sanding I needed to do for a simple piece was pretty nasty.
Pink Ebony: I didn't end up with any usable pieces, as I was experimenting with it while I had coupler problems (I should have saved it and used the poplar, but I didn't want to re-do all of my extrusions and toolpaths for a different thickness of wood while I was troubleshooting). It might be the best milling wood I've tried. It has almost no visible grain, and ends up feeling like a light stone. I can see why they call it "ivory." I'm definitely picking up several more pieces of it after the holidays.
I've got blanks for another dozen or so species, which I look forward to trying after Christmas.
