MAY 2017 Project of the Month - Mini Garden Arbor!

Hello,

This project features two-sided machining to create a lattice pattern for the sides of the Mini Garden Arbor. The arbor holds a standard size 4" flower pot and makes a nice decorative item to display. I chose to apply a shabby chic paint technique for the sample, but you can finish it any way that fits your own decor.

The project uses just the 1/8" Cutting Bit. No other bits are required.

The Mini Garden Arbor is about 6.25" deep x 8" wide x 11.7" tall.

Main Items you will need:

1) The Project Files (included):

• Arbor_Sides-and-Shelf.mpc
• Arches.mpc

2) Board(s) with the following dimensions:

Arbor Sides and Shelf: 0.75" x 7" x 32"
Arches: 0.75" x 11" x 22"

NOTE: Do not use boards that are smaller than specified above unless using an appropriate jig.

3) Seven 5.3125" lengths of 0.375" dia. dowels, a 4" flowerpot

4) Glue, clamps, sandpaper, stain and/or paint and clear finish

5) A Dremel-type rotary tool with assorted sanding wheels and bits to sand small details. Suggested: spindle sander, small belt sander, band saw for cutting dowels, pin nailer for tacking parts together

Apply your choice of finish. Here’s what I used on my sample Mini Garden Arbor made from Select Pine:

• Applied a base coat of Rust-Oleum green (satin) spray paint and allowed to dry.

• Sprayed directly over the green base coat with Krylon White Primer* and allowed to dry.

• Scratched/scuffed overall with pieces of coarse 60-grit sandpaper to allow bits of the green base coat to show through. Smoothed the scuffed flat surfaces with 220-grit sandpaper.

*NOTE: I used primer over the green base coat because it is easy to scuff/scratch through to the base coat. I believe flat white spray paint would have served just as well or better. Sandpaper loads with the primer pretty quickly, so you’ll want to change to fresh sandpaper pieces frequently while scuffing the surface.

• Applied Krylon Flat acrylic clear spray to seal

Another winner Michael!! Looking forward to carving and assembling it!! Thank You!

Thank you!

I have to brag on the CarveWright machine...

This project requires accurate indexing between the two sides of the board that creates the latticework sides, which the CW is perfectly capable of, of course. No worries there.

However, on the day I had scheduled to run the project, we had thunderstorms and rain all day long. I chickened out running the machine that day because I feared a power outage. So, I reluctantly delayed the project run until the weather behaved.

The following day had no prediction of thunderstorms, but it was quite windy. Good to go - I thought.

Loaded a board and started the Back side of the two-sided lattice carve. Forty minutes into the project, we lost power!! Dang! Power was finally restored, and I decided to just leave the board in and restart the project from the beginning (rather than create a new MPC covering the parts already cut). I figured that was "insurance" to maintain lining up properly. The board remeasured and to my delight, the measurement was EXACTLY 0.005" within the original measurement when ran the first time. OK! Let's go again. The backside carved without a hitch (spot-on alignment), flipped the board over and started the Front side of the project.

A little over three hours into the Front side carve, guess what? Power went out again! I thought that did me in. But, I went ahead and made a new MPC of just the FRONT side (using my battery-powered laptop) that contained only the areas not carved yet, replaced the memory card into the machine and waited for the power to come back on.

Power was restored about an hour later. Crossing my fingers, I ran my new MPC on the board that had already been completely carved on the Back and mostly carved on the Front. I did need to lift the head and reposition the board to an area for the board sensor to measure width across an uncarved area. That made me wonder if I had any hope of the two sides aligning with each other. The carve completed 48 minutes later and I could finally inspect the board on both sides.

Oh my goodness! It was flawless. I paused to thank the Lord (and patted my CarveWright machine)! Despite TWO power outages and project re-starts, the CW came through AGAIN! It never ceases to impress me even after all these years!

Very interesting experience! Impressive result for sure!

love the story, It really does amaze me sometimes the things it can do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dltccf

love the story, It really does amaze me sometimes the things it can do.

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Yes, indeed! It's an amazing piece of machinery!