question for claw foot

[oscarl48]

Quick question. Has anyone successfully carved a claw foot leg. If so, what technique/process did you use?

My next project is going to be dragon display table with (I hope) dragon claw legs (black walnut and maple accents).

I have developed an STL pattern but I am unsure it is the best way to go (long term stability and strength). My other thought was to build a cutting pattern for three of the side (front and sides) and to band saw the back where you don't need the detail. I am looking at about 4" across with ball and claws, 4" deep and about 12" tall. This technique would need a sled which so far I have sucked at.

Thanks.

Oscar

[bergerud]

See: http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?25707-Need-STL-Claw-and-Ball-or-Paw-and-Ball&p=229867#post229867

[oscarl48]

bergerud,

Thank you. I did see that thread. Though they were great models I was looking for a more traditional example. I whipped up a quick model in blender to see what I could do with it. I ported into CW as an STL but not sure if that's the best way to do it. I will do a test carve this weekend and see how it looks. I built the model by eye and not symmetrical at all so just a prototype model for now.

Thanks again for the assist. I'll share what I find out with my experiment.

Oscar

[oscarl48]

Partial success. My different layers didn't line up very well. I'll have to clean that up. After a little bit of glue I got the first two pictures. I took a rasp to it and after about 10 minutes I got the next two pictures . If I actually take my time and do a proper glue up with some pressure (again only an experiment so I just lined them up the best I could and waited for the glue to set a little bit) it will not have all the seams I have in this one. Also I knew the model was not symmetrical but during the glue up it was obvious just how lopsided it was.

My overall conclusion is this is a viable way to do a dragon claw foot leg. It is much stronger than I thought it would be. Off to some drafting paper to start the design.

[bergerud]

That is cool. Have you thought about gluing as you carve? Carve the middle piece (could be double sided.) Use big tabs. Then glue boards on top and bottom. (Put glue only where the carve piece is.) Then carve the top and bottom. With some creative slicing one can even carve over the glue joints .

[gashawk]

The ball and claw carvings pretty kool. And so is the carving idea. Keep up the good work.

[oscarl48]

gashawk, thanks.

bergerud, that is a cool idea that would never have come to me. I'll have to give it a try next time I need a sled. I still want to design a wood gear clock in the future which that technique may be perfect.

I also figured out why the sizes were so out of whack. I had the scale to fit board on and it resized the slices to different scales. I love it when I screw up royally. :) Thankfully the concept still worked out and turned out to be fairly simple. I went and more carefully created another model that is actually symmetrical. I failed to design it first and just started modeling. It turned out to be more stylistic in form. Its always a surprise at the end. Not sure if its the one I will be using though since I haven't designed the cabinet yet nor done the artwork either.

I ran out of time. We are expecting rain and mid-30s tomorrow which means its too cold for me to woodwork since I don't have a shop. So its a next weekend project. That will give me time to make a few more models and see which one I want. I'll see which one I like better by then. I'll share this one in case anyone wants to play with the patterns or wants to try something similar. It should carve out in about 2 1/2 hours on normal using a 36" x 6" board. There will be some shaping and sanding required due to using the 1/16 bit.

[kroskam]

Great Idea! I have thought about layered carvings before but the Claw Foot on a table leg is a perfect use for it. With a lathe, you could clean up the legs to look like the real thing. Keep up the innovative ideas!!!

[RogerB]

Nice slice thanks for sharing. This would be one for the the to do list. ;)

[oscarl48]

Moving this effort over to pattern sharing under Dragon steam punk cabinet. I'll post all the patterns I build. Should be fun.