yenne
04-21-2006, 08:36 PM
Hello everyone! It's my hope to post a weekly (or thereabouts) project demonstrating some interesting feature of the CarveWright machine. Comments, suggestions, and requests are welcome!
This installment is some project files and instructions for creating a jewelry box like the one on our Results page. All of these project pieces demonstrate the use of patterns laid out within rectangular regions.
http://www.carvewright.com/images/BOX1.JPG
The bits you'll need are the carving bit and the cutting bit (the ones that came with the machine), a 1/2" ballnose for the edge rout around the lid, and the 3/8" straight jointing bit for cutting rabbets on the reverse side of the lid and on the top of the base. If you don't have some of these bits, you can modify the project files to use something else or remove those routs.
All the pieces are intended for 1/2" thick wood. The top is 8-3/8 by 5-3/8, the long sides are 8-1/8 by 2-1/2, the short sides are 5-3/16 by 2-1/2, and the base is 8-1/2 by 5-1/2.
I strongly recommend letting the machine keep the main workpiece under rollers at all times, rather than you manually cutting out the appropriately-sized pieces. If you place a long or wide enough board in, all pieces can be placed and cut from the same piece of wood, keeping its ends under the rollers, then broken apart when all are finished.
When uploading these pieces, the software will likely prompt you to auto-jig since the cuts will interfere with the aux roller. Since you plan to place all the pieces on a single board (right?), you can select Manual Jig or just Ignore. The lid (with the cuts on the reverse side) can actually interfere with the aux roller when flipped, so you might want to go ahead and let the machine auto-jig the lid. All this will do is prevent it from being placed in a position that could interfere when flipped.
Start with the lid, since it has carvings on both sides, requiring you to start with the back side and then flip the board over to the front. When flipping, remember to flip across the width rather than end-to-end.
As the machine cuts out the side pieces, the 1/8" feathering along each end may chip away to varying degrees, depending on the type of wood used. Do not panic, as this feathering is going to be cut off anyway when beveling the edges below. The feathering is too close to the edge not to chip out, but I didn't do anything about it because we're just going to cut it off anyway.
After cutting out each of the pieces, use a miter saw or equivalent to place a 45-degree bevel on the back edges of the side pieces so they can be glued together on the base. The GUI and machine can be finangled to place the bevels automatically, but the machine currently isn't so great about beveling a board with carvings on the back (without a jig), and doing it in the GUI would create more board flips, complicating the process. Far easier to just do it manually, IMHO.
Enjoy!
This installment is some project files and instructions for creating a jewelry box like the one on our Results page. All of these project pieces demonstrate the use of patterns laid out within rectangular regions.
http://www.carvewright.com/images/BOX1.JPG
The bits you'll need are the carving bit and the cutting bit (the ones that came with the machine), a 1/2" ballnose for the edge rout around the lid, and the 3/8" straight jointing bit for cutting rabbets on the reverse side of the lid and on the top of the base. If you don't have some of these bits, you can modify the project files to use something else or remove those routs.
All the pieces are intended for 1/2" thick wood. The top is 8-3/8 by 5-3/8, the long sides are 8-1/8 by 2-1/2, the short sides are 5-3/16 by 2-1/2, and the base is 8-1/2 by 5-1/2.
I strongly recommend letting the machine keep the main workpiece under rollers at all times, rather than you manually cutting out the appropriately-sized pieces. If you place a long or wide enough board in, all pieces can be placed and cut from the same piece of wood, keeping its ends under the rollers, then broken apart when all are finished.
When uploading these pieces, the software will likely prompt you to auto-jig since the cuts will interfere with the aux roller. Since you plan to place all the pieces on a single board (right?), you can select Manual Jig or just Ignore. The lid (with the cuts on the reverse side) can actually interfere with the aux roller when flipped, so you might want to go ahead and let the machine auto-jig the lid. All this will do is prevent it from being placed in a position that could interfere when flipped.
Start with the lid, since it has carvings on both sides, requiring you to start with the back side and then flip the board over to the front. When flipping, remember to flip across the width rather than end-to-end.
As the machine cuts out the side pieces, the 1/8" feathering along each end may chip away to varying degrees, depending on the type of wood used. Do not panic, as this feathering is going to be cut off anyway when beveling the edges below. The feathering is too close to the edge not to chip out, but I didn't do anything about it because we're just going to cut it off anyway.
After cutting out each of the pieces, use a miter saw or equivalent to place a 45-degree bevel on the back edges of the side pieces so they can be glued together on the base. The GUI and machine can be finangled to place the bevels automatically, but the machine currently isn't so great about beveling a board with carvings on the back (without a jig), and doing it in the GUI would create more board flips, complicating the process. Far easier to just do it manually, IMHO.
Enjoy!