Carving a large natural edge board

[dehrlich]

So I'm wanting to make a really bad a** sign for my shop from a natural edge board. The pattern I started working on is 12" wide and 7 ft long. So how would I jig it to go in the machine? I'm thinking I attach it to a plywood sled on the bottom. How will the machine measure it? Does it have to have sides so the sensor can find it? Haven't jigged or used a sled yet so no sure how it works. May end up with normal board but thinking natural edge not so straight board might be nicer. Thanks for any help!

[CNC Carver]

I would attach it to a 12" wide plywood or MDF board and have it measure at your natural boards widest point. You will need to make sure and give yourself extra room on the sides for imperfections in your wood.

[bjbethke]

So I'm wanting to make a really bad a** sign for my shop from a natural edge board. The pattern I started working on is 12" wide and 7 ft long. So how would I jig it to go in the machine? I'm thinking I attach it to a plywood sled on the bottom. How will the machine measure it? Does it have to have sides so the sensor can find it? Haven't jigged or used a sled yet so no sure how it works. May end up with normal board but thinking natural edge not so straight board might be nicer. Thanks for any help!


It all depends on what the board looks like. You need to make a straight edge on the Key Pad side to track the board. A 12 inch board seven foot long may over power your "X" drive adding extra lumber will make it worse. The length will be measured where the board sencor hits it and the width will be measured where you place the board in the machine. The pattern will line up with these two readings if you use center the pattern. Hope this helps you need a side rail the thickness of your board on the Key Pad side, the length needs to be where the rollers UNCOMPRESS when you measure the length. BJB

[Digitalwoodshop]

IF I were doing this project....

I would start with a sheet of thin plywood 2 inches wider than the rough board. I would make a set of Rails for the plywood about 1/4 inch higher than the highest point of the blank. You are going to attach the two 3/4 inch wide rails to the plywood with glue and some pin nails. Let it dry.

Place the Wood Blank into the 2 sided sled. Attach two cross pieces of wood to the side rails so if you turned the jig over the cross rails would hold the wood in.... With the blank and sled up side down, use some Spray Minimally Expanding Foam between the gap UNDER the blank. This will press the blank flush to the side rails and DRY. After Dry, remove the side rails and I would run the whole jig through a Thickness Sander to be sure you don't have any high spots....

Make up your artwork, and cut... Using just enough foam to hold the blank not hold the blank forever...

Good Luck....

This takes care of the Width problem measuring and with END Blocks fixes any measuring problems...

AL

And with this much WEIGHT I would have extra sand paper belts and a few X GEAR BOX Gears....:twisted:

[dehrlich]

Ok so it's not a good idea. LOL As fragile as my machine seems to be I won't try it. Perhaps I will just carve it in pieces and assemble it on the big board.

[JuicyCarp]

Funny thing, I was thinking about a project much like this one last night, but on a much larger natural edge board. How does this solution sound to you?

The sign I would want to carve is for a custom home building company, and the natural edge board is much to large to fit in the natural edge board. What if you carved your sign out of a board the same species as your natural edge board, then carved with your router the natural edge board so that your carvewright peice would fit nicely into it. I guess its like inlay on a large scale. If you bordered your carvewright piece with a contrasting colored species, it would make any color variations pretty tough to notice.

Does this make any sense?

[Digitalwoodshop]

OR.... Rip SAW the board into a 4 S BLANK, CARVE IT and Glue the Natural Edges back in place....

AL

[unitedcases]

Or just carve your own natural edge. That pattern is still floating around somewhere.

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