Cut Path on Sled

[RayB]

I am posting this primarily for other newbies (I am still on week one) to get some idea of how the cut path feature works when the project is on a carrier board.

After planing my project board and some plywood end boards to the same thickness (a little less than 3/4"), I mounted (with masking tape) the three boards to a 1/8" thick plywood carrier board.

This being my first try at a "cut path", I wasn't sure what to expect, and had my finger on the stop button during the cut ... just in case.

As you can see in the photos, the project came out pretty good ... and it wasn't until I took the project out of the machine that I knew that the pattern was totally cut out. The machine did leave tabs, but they ended up in the carrier board. I guess the proper way to have done this would be to have used some double-stick carpet tape to stick the three boards to the carrier ... or would the tape have gotten tangled up in the cutting bit (it has nylon threads in it)? Maybe I did it right!

P.S. Can anyone identify what kind of wood this is ... I probably got this chunk 20 years ago.

There is also some burning in the lettering. Is there any way to remedy that now?
:)

[jonweis]

Purple heart and will change to a deep purple in a day or so. Best finished with just plain Watco Natural Oil to preserve the color long term.

[DocWheeler]

Ray,

As you discovered, you can not use Cutpath with a carrier board or sled. The machine does a Cutpath on the material thickness it finds, not what you tell it in Designer. You need to create your own Cutpath with routings.

Good job, there are a bunch of things to learn here!

[RayB]

Thanks Jon for the identification. That was pretty clever of me to choose Purple Heart wood to do a heart pattern!

I was thinking more about the proper way to mount a project board to a carrier board, knowing you were planning a total cut path. Would it have been better to mount the project board to the carrier with something like Reposition-able Spray Adhesive?

Regarding the finishing of the purple heart ... I found a quart of Watco Teak Oil down in the shop. It says it provides "superior protection for dense woods, such as teak, mahogany and rosewood. Can you think of any reason why I should not use that on my project?

[jonweis]

Thanks Jon for the identification. That was pretty clever of me to choose Purple Heart wood to do a heart pattern!

I was thinking more about the proper way to mount a project board to a carrier board, knowing you were planning a total cut path. Would it have been better to mount the project board to the carrier with something like Reposition-able Spray Adhesive?

Regarding the finishing of the purple heart ... I found a quart of Watco Teak Oil down in the shop. It says it provides "superior protection for dense woods, such as teak, mahogany and rosewood. Can you think of any reason why I should not use that on my project?

Should work just fine!

[RayB]

O.K. I went with a coat of Teak Oil. I discovered that the oil also masked the router burn that I had in the lettering. Bonus!

I was shooting for a "carved on a tree trunk" look. This font is called "Apple Casual" ... I chose it once I figured out that in order to get uniform centerline text depth, the font must have letter stroke of a uniform width.

Not too bad for a "noobie"!

:D

[ncamp]

Purple heart and will change to a deep purple in a day or so. Best finished with just plain Watco Natural Oil to preserve the color long term.

I did a heart shaped box out of purple heart. I cannot count how many times I've had the following talk...

Them: That's beautiful, what kind of wood is it?

Me: It's purple heart.

Them: I know it's a purple heart, but what kind of wood is it?:confused:

[forqnc]

I was thinking more about the proper way to mount a project board to a carrier board, knowing you were planning a total cut path.

I would not mount it to a carrier board, just add the extra to the ends. I just did my first project where I needed to add extra wood all around my board to allow the machine to cut out the project and worked fine.

[forqnc]

I cannot add a picture to my previous post.
Just wanted to show what I was talking about.

[Huskermania]

I have my machine ordered but haven't received it yet. I have seen a few posts where I see people saying to tape pieces of wood around the project to save wood. I guess I just don't have enough respect for maskng tape but is that really enough to keep the pieces together as it goes through and is being routed? This probably should be under the stupid question category but I guess I gotta ask it anyway. Thanks!

[Kenm810]

Huskermania,
I was skeptical at first myself, But found it to work quite well,
even on my two and three hour carvings.
The masking tape holds the pieces together and the 85 lbs. of roller pressure hold the project in place
as the traction belts move it along the "X" axis under the Carving Head and Bit.
It's just one of several way to secure parts of your carvings.

[RayB]

I guess I just don't have enough respect for maskng tape but is that really enough to keep the pieces together as it goes through and is being routed? This probably should be under the stupid question category but I guess I gotta ask it anyway.As a high school math teacher for 32 years (now retired), I always taught my students that there was no such thing as a stupid question ... and that includes your question.

I too would question if simply taping on the end boards might lead to sniping once the project board left the last pressure roller. I don't think that was an issue on forqnc's project because there was still several inches of project board on either side of his cutpath.

I do think masking tape would work on filler boards ... but personally, I would add the end boards first, and then add top and bottom rails (as suggested by DocWheeler in the "sled and saving wood" thread). Then the pressure rollers could not possibly cause any snipe. If you check out Doc's photo, you will see that he doesn't even bother with the end boards!
;)

[Huskermania]

Thanks for the replys on the masking tape. For the record, I also don't believe in stupid questions but just in case some on here do, I thought I would make fun of myself first. lol. I am learning that this is a great bunch. Thanks again!