I found this project on The Wood Whisperer’s site right before Halloween. I wanted to make one but did not want to buy the template or pattern bit. Also it looked like doing it that way would take a really long time but maybe I’m just lazy. Either way I was running out of time to have it done by Halloween. I put this on the back burner for another day. Next thing I knew it was Christmas time and I really wanted to do this project. At this point I had already done a drawing on my computer for a Halloween bowl, so I knew where to begin with another design. I decided on a Christmas tree. I had to wonder how I was going to cut it out? I wanted to try our CNC Mill. Then I drew it out on my cad system and figured I might as well program it in my Cam software. Then all I needed was some wood and I decided to go with 8/4 Alder. I milled it up at home on my planer and cut it to length. Then the fun part began and I put the program in the machine and watched the wood chips fly. The Christmas tree bowl only took about 15 minutes to run. I sanded the entire thing, used a hand router to round the edges and finished it with a spray can of Polyurethane. I still would like to make some more of these for different holidays. I just need to come up with some different designs and get some machine time to run them. Since I have a Cad program and a CNC Mill at work, I am able to design projects and machine them, so this was a simple project for me to complete. But if you would like to, you could go to http://www.eagleamerica.com and search for the router templates and bowl and tray router bits. If you are just beginning with wood working, this is a simple thing to complete with a few tools but it is also something that family and friends would like to receive as a gift. In the future I would like to have some more designs and make them out of different exotic woods so I could sell them.
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| CAD DRAWING |
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| CAM PROGRAM |
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| CUT PART RENDER |
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| HAAS VF2 MILL |
