Whittled in Wood

Stacking Boxes: Batman, Starwars, Blue's Clues, Etc.

2011-06-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

I made these boxes last year. Why they havn't made it onto my blog till now? I don't know. We love using them. We have about half of them in the play room where the kids separate the toys into the different categories.

They don't have fasteners. So, the ones we aren't using, they pack away completely flat. The next into one another, , and the bottoms are ready for casters (if i ever decided to put some on it). I make them with whatever on the sides. We let the kids pick designs they wanted on the sides. The results can be seen in the pictures :Blue's Clues, Butterfly, Paw Prints / Sun, Moon,
Lightning Cloud, Stars / Batman, Superman, Jedi / Empire, Decepticons, Autobots, as seen in the top picture. Some we painted, and others we didnt. We like them both ways.

Rifle Display

2011-06-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

Built this rifle display for a Retiring Colonel.

Toy Wooden Rubber-Band Powered Catapults

2011-05-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine brought me a Catapult and asked me if i could replicate it. I took the design, and added a few modifications. For one, This one requires no fasteners. Its all snug-fitted together. We find these to be a ton of fun at the park (free ammunition comes from the trees.) We also like giving these as gifts for birthdays. If you want some of them, they are for sale. I have some at Cranberry Hill Mercantile in Sunnyvale, California, along with some of my other items.

"Kiss of Death":The kiss of death or lipstick catapult is a catapult used by the KGB during the Cold War. It was a single shot 4.5oz stone hidden inside a girly decorated Catapult. An example found in West Berlin at an American checkpoint is now held by the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., USA.

"Bumblebee"

"Trogdor" (a.k.a 'The Burnanator'): Trogdor the Burninator is an S-shaped wing-a-ling dragon with a beefy arm. Trogdor burninates the countryside, peasants, and thatched-roof cottages of Peasantry.

"Daisy Cutter"

The first shot is Fired!

2011 Pinewood Derby CNC Car: The Lead Zeppelin

2011-04-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have worshiped with, worked with, and played with Dan Packard for over a decade now. Last year Dan asked me for some help in the construction of his Son's Car for the Pinewood Derby. Last year we did the "Tumbler" from Batman. It was my first attempt as such a project, and while it looked really good, I think we did much better this year.

We call it "The Lead Zeppelin"

Michael came into the office (BTW, this is one of the awesome perks of the workplace being a family business (even though I am not family) for a brainstorm session. He knew from the previous year that I "offer awesomeness, not speed..." So with that in mind. We came up with several ideas. We had maybe 8 great ideas, but to Michael's credit, he suggest that since we have so many great ideas, lets just pick from what we have. It came down to either a Pink Torpedo (Think Kirby the Game Character) wearing a Tikki Mask, OR, A Zeppelin looking like a Shark, chasing a Lego man suspended in front of him (think carrot in front of a donkey).

When the Main parts were done, the hanging Lego man got booted, but this is what we ended up with. I think his car was by far the coolest. Only 5 cars or so were shaped more than a doorstop. His had the best paint job, it had the coolest design, it was the tallest. Michael and I made the decision last year that, We are in Silicon Valley, all the other kid's Dads are Engineer's, and smart and stuff. While i don't think i am dumb regarding Physics, I do like to win at games that everyone else tells me i am losing at, by deciding that i will follow a different objective. I think Michael kinda Digs that part.

Turning Stickers into Wooden Toys

2011-04-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Earlier last week i was thinking about projects i need/want to do with the kids. I was also thinking about things we could do together on our Monday Night Family Home Evening. On the way home from Work, the kids were excited to show me what they had made. They were given a sheet of paper, and a pack of stickers which contained parts and accessories needed for creating your very own Sticker Monster. There were multiple body shapes, and multiple arms, legs, eyes, horns/ears. You know, Mix and match.

I decided were were going to turn these Sticker Monsters they had made into wooden toys.

1. Photograph the Stickers
The kids put these together. Here is one example of what we started with.

2. Cutout and Wheels
Here you can see the cutout and wheeled version:
3. Painting
This is upcoming. The idea is to work on the projects over time with the kids. I think Painting is probably their favorite part.

Making a Spring RTS Map Game Table

2011-02-23T10:30:00.001-08:00

The Spring coffee table

Here’s a bit more background and detailed step-by-step instructions about the coffee table I made for the April issue of Wired magazine. Don't forget to check out my other projects. I really enjoy making custom shaped Bookcases. you can see what i am talking about here.

Step 1: Select a Map (using Tasclient)

Regular players of Spring will recognize any map from that game in any form. But I wanted this table to appeal to non-players, too, so I chose a map that would be compelling on its own. From the beginning, the MoonQ (lunar-terrain) maps seemed like the best choice to me. The table in the Wired article is based on MoonQ20, a rectangular moonscape.

Once you settle on your map, you have to decide the dimensions of your table (or other object)—width, length, depth, etc. The easiest method for viewing Spring maps is with Tasclient (Download from this page). You'll also need Spring (SpringRTS.com) Tasclient lets you connect to a game, but it also will let you view game maps. To do this, host a game, then select a map. A minimap of the selected map is actually a button for a 3D preview of the map. When you've found the map you want to use, remember its name.

Step 2: Extract the Heightmap (Using Spring Map Edit)

Maps in Spring are actually compressed files that contain all kinds of goodies. For instance, every MAP file contains not only the texture and color but also the height map information, and several other important files. We're only concerned with the heightmap. I mentioned it’s compressed. You’ll need 7zip to open it up. You need to get the .SMF file. It’s inside the map file, inside a folder called "Maps". Extract it, and remember where.

Now start up Spring Map Edit (SME). SME is one of the tools used to create/modify maps in the game. I don't make maps, and I don't modify them either. What I do know is how to use SME to get the heightmap. To do this, Select Map>Load>Import Spring SM2 Map. ]There is no graphical progress bar. Just give it a bit of time. It will come up. If you want to see that it’s loading, you can switch over to the console window that opened with SME.

When its loaded, select Map>Save>Save Heightmap (PNG 16bit). And there you go. You now have a 16-bit heightmap.

Step 3: Adjust Heightmap (Using Photoshop)

A heightmap is a 2D representation of a 2.5D object. (2.5D objects are things that have no "under" areas. So no caves, no inverted cliffs. Just the tops An example of a 2.5D object might be a pyramid in the desert, while an example of a 3D object would be the same pyramid, with the point at the bottom.—3D because it has "undercuts," or areas under other areas. Heightmaps represent 2.5D objects. The height is represented in color, usually black/white, or grayscale. If you look at the heightmap you just made, it’s all whites, blacks and grays. What does this have to do with anything?

Each shade of gray represents a particular height. In the next step we are going to tell some software to set white for the minimum depth of cutting, and black as maximum depth. With this, however, if the heightmap contains only grays right in the middle of the shade range, the result will be that the router won’t cut to our desired maximum depth because there is no black. So the trick is to get the darkest color in the heightmap to be black, and the brightest color to be white. This is called "Levels" in Photoshop. We are going to tell Photoshop to change the darkest gray in the heightmap to black and the lightest to white, then adjust all the grays in between accordingly. The result will be a heightmap with higher contrast, which will allow for greater precision.

Open the PNG file in Photoshop and open the “Levels” dialog. In the picture at right, “A” and “C” represent the scale’s black and white values, respectively. Note that there is true black but no true white. The lightest value, indicated by “B,” is actually 20% gray. To correct this, grab the little slider below “C” and drag it left until it’s under the right-most value that registers on the scale (again, noted in this image by “B”). Similarly, if the levels scale for your image has a gap between the blackest level and the left edge of the scale, grab the left slider and position it under the darkest level on the scale. Once you’ve got the sliders positioned at the edge of your image’s outer edges, pres “OK.” Your image will transform into one with full contrast. You’ll now have true black, true white, and a wider range in between.

Eight-bit images will struggle here, as they can hold only 256 values (0-255). If you start with an 8-bit image that has black thru 50% gray, for example, you’re starting with only 128 levels. If you use the process I’ve just outlined to convert that 50% gray to white, the grays in between will scale evenly between black and white, but the jumps will be rather pronounced, since you’ll be dealing with only 128 levels to cover the full range between black and white.

I started with an 8-bit heightmap, and you can see the stair-steps where the drill bit transitioned from one shade to the next. Sixteen-bit images can hold 65,000+ colors, meaning you’ll always have a pleasantly progressive transition from black to white and will have a much smoother carving

Step 4: Generate gCode (using PhotoVCarve)

PhotoVCarve (PVC) was designed to take a photograph and generate instructions for a CNC router to, essentially, scratch the image into wood—deeper scratches for darker areas, and shallow scratches for light areas. It’s all carved with a V-Bit (a Bit with two sharp angles, typically 90 degrees).

We’re going to change all this drastically.

First, change the bit to a ballnose/bullnose bit (the kind that is half a sphere at the tip). Then adjust the stepover. This is the amount of space between each “scratch,” usually measured as a percentage of the bit’s diameter. Set it between 6 and 9 percent. Under 6 percent, and the cutting gets torturously slow; over 9, and you start getting pronounced ridges between the passes. I keep mine at 8 percent.

Next, change “Carve Max Depth” to be whatever you want the carving to cut down to. I’m starting with wood that’s 2.25 inches thick, and I don’t want to go all the way through, so I set the max depth to 1.75 inches. Make sure you know how deep your bit can cut in a single pass. Mine can only cut 1.25 inches, so I will be cutting this twice—first a rough cut, then a second “finishing” pass.

There are several ways to compensate for the desired Max Depth being deeper than your bit can cut in one pass. You decide how to handle that. I usually set the machine to have a stepover of 40 percent, enter the max depth of the bit as my max carving depth, and save the gCode. I repeat that process, going deeper each time, until I am at my desired max depth. The finishing is as I just described: Max depth of carving, and a stepover between 6 and 9 percent.

With your settings dialed in, save the file as gCode and transfer it to your CNC’s computer.

Step 5: Machining the Wood (using Mach3)

There isn't much to say here. Secure the wood, position the machine over your designated starting position, load the gCode file you created in PVC, and press “Start.” Then wait. This table took four hours to carve.

I have read comments from people concerned about running a router for that long. Here is my plug for the Hitachi M12VC. When you are doing this kind of machining, the router isn’t under much load. It’s mostly spinning free, since you’re cutting off only tiny layers with each pass. I have run my router for over 35 hours without stopping. I've had to replace the bearings several times over the past for years, but overall it works like a charm. For this 18"x24" carving, I used a 1/4" cutter.

Step 6: Painting (using Professionals)

I’m not a painter. My wife—and I totally agree with her on this—says “you make beautiful stuff, then you paint it, and it’s destroyed.” Still, I wanted a cool paint job to finish this off. Where can you find someone good at painting and who would want to paint something like this? Your local tabletop-gaming store—the place where the D&D players meet. Could be a comic store, too. Regardless, these shops are full of people who do masterful paint jobs of figurines. I guarantee it you’ll find someone to help you.

The shop close to me has a “painting night” every Monday. Anyone interested in painting detail stuff is welcome to come watch, paint, advise, whatever. I took a small test version of this table down there to practice on and got great advice on how to paint it. Then it was just a matter of scaling that up for the full-size map. End result: An epic, intergalactic coffee table.

Game Table Pics

2011-02-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

More on this later. But here are some pics.

Mahogany Toy Cars - Barricade (Transformers) & Mach 5 (Speed Racer)

2010-10-11T20:59:00.005-07:00

Remember the Tumbler (Batman Begins), i made as a Pinewood Derby car? I gave the prototype to my oldest son (who was helping in the shop that day). He played with it quite a bit, and would ask me occasionally, when we were going to put wheels on his car.

To make a long story short. It got thrown away, unfinished. I have been terribly sick, as have half my children, and now that we are better, my Bride seems near death with stomach aches and the like. So, to pass the time, with Mom in bed, and give me and the Kids something to work on in the shop (They help paint), I asked what car we should make: "Barricade". I didn't take pictures of Barricade's construction, but i got some good ones for Mach 5.

After finishing Barricade, it occurred to me that, even thought a lot of work when into making the car, it was actually pretty fun to make/paint and the kids really enjoy the process, and they are durable as all get out.

Ohh, Did i mention they don't require much $ in materials? 98% of the value is in the machining, sanding, painting, designing of the cars.

Now, I get to cheat, because just about every car on the planet has a fan who knows how to Model in 3D, so Barricade was easy. Mach 5 was harder. I've been watching for a good model to appear for months and months.

So, without further adieu,

Young Women Emblem All-Star Trophies

2010-09-29T21:25:00.002-07:00

Wanted to get these posted. Trying to stay on the ball with posting my projects. These were given out this evening. Instructions were "Its for Young Womens. All-Star theme. Oh, And i didn't do the painting.

Star Wars Themed Dance (w/ Props)

2010-09-29T13:38:00.004-07:00

I was asked to help make a flyer to announce a Youth Dance at Church. I'm Mormon, as are many of the people i work with (all my Bosses included), and often i get to mix Religion and Work. So one morning several weeks ago one of them asked me for some help putting together a flier. The parameters: Star Wars theme, the Catchphrase was "May the dance be with you." and it needed to be designed for B/W printing (It would be emailed out, and printed locally for distribution). Oh, and it needed to be Quarter-Sheet.

Easy enough I thought. Wait, When is it due by? 3pm? Not a problem! So, instead of making 1 design, i made 8. I figured that the extra designed would add a few things to the dance. 1)The dance was different, i mean, look at the flyers, 8 versions? And that seing the multiple flyers would help the kids remember to go (I know i forgot to go to a few dances that i wanted to go to) and 2, That this one was worth coming to because it was going to be better than others. Here are the 2 quarter sheet

To make a long story short: I'm a huge Nerd, and i got pretty into the idea of a star wars dance. I thought that having prizes (for star wars trivia, or any game we might do at the dance) would be cool. I ended up making/bring 4 kinds of prizes with the $85 budget they gave me to work with.

The easiest one was Cubeecraft starwars characters. These are paper cutouts that fold into characters drawn on the paper (you print thme and cut) = brought 89 different characters

I had the idea to bring something that was feminine, so i designed Deathstar Earrings. I forgot to get a picture of them (and we actually forgot completely about them at the dance aswell) but they were still cool = 8 pair

I designed 2 toys, using slide-together construction from really cheap insulating foam. We hung them abover the dancefloor, and then gave them ut as prizes at the end of the dance = 3 - X-Wings and 7 - TieFighters

The last thing i brought was a 4ft x 8ft STAR WARS sign i designed. I used a 3d model of the Deathstar, and of the Millenium Falcon i got from Good Sketchup's 3D Warehouse.
The kids really enjoyed the dance. We had a great time, and the props were a really big success.
So, to all those Star Wars fans out there: "May the Force be with you!"

Fire Hydrant Coupler

2010-07-15T07:50:00.003-07:00

So several years back and frend of mine asked me "Can your machine do Patterns?" And he wasn't talking Clothes. Patterns are a copy of the part one is trying to replicate, or trying to make from Metal (or plastic). So if you want a part from Metal, say a Cast Iron Pan, you get a wooden version of it, first. Without going into all the details of it. The wood verson is used to make the shape of the pan in sand, then metal is poured into the shape you made with the wooden pattern.

So last night i made my first Pattern Prototype. I learned a few thigns from the process, and am very happy with the first results.

Took pictures of it this morning. The aluminum patterns was made my a machinist. The wood shape in the middle is what i made, and the black thing on the right is the part i'm making a patterns for.

Wooden Tree Bookshelf in Full Bloom

2010-05-30T07:53:00.002-07:00

The TREE SHELVES are finally finished. And it only took....... 15 cans of spray paint.

Tree Shelves Getting closer.

2010-05-22T20:42:00.002-07:00

So, Got them to this point this evening. Little too dark to take a photo without flash. Looks Great (I think)

Completed Piano Box

2010-04-30T10:35:00.004-07:00

So i finished the first Piano box (Well my part atleast, short of staining, and lining the inside)
Takes 2 bits (one for shaping, one for lettering). The detail on the letter came out perfectly. When stained, the lettering will appear darkers (Carvings do that)

I took pictures of the maching process. Enjoy

Piano Box

2010-04-29T07:38:00.004-07:00

I was asked to help make an award for a Piano Academy. We had bee talking slowly about ideas for about a week. Last night we made a decision on a design to prototype (Still needs approval from the Boss). The exact shape is still being decided, but the concept is the same. A box in the shape of a Piano.

The end should be a Piano shaped box crafted from 2 fitted pieces of wood. You can see here, the prototype (of the lid). The trick is to cut the wood in the right direction for the Grain, to make the cut work just right. This proto taught me lots of things i need to adjust here and there about the process. But i suspect it won't be much different that this when its completed. Tell me, Should the lid be hinged (and from the long side of course) like a regular piano, or do we let the outside be unblemished by hardware?

The Trunk of the Tree

2010-04-28T07:57:00.002-07:00

Stayed up till 3 last night putting this thing together. Learned a lot in the process, about what to and not to do with this design. Luckily i didn't break any parts, so its all come together nicely. Gonna make some adjustments for the other sections, but the R&D has paid off well.
Take a look

The result is pretty cool.

2010-04-22T22:13:00.001-07:00

My Bride is pleased with her list of Machned goods being nearly complete. With that in mind, she mentioned something the other evening that perked my inventive side.
So the next day i brought it back up
me:Hey babe, you said something about shelves for the books, shaped like a tree?
her: Yeah, ...
me: So [drawing a picture with my hands] like this?
her: No, more like this [See the pic below].

this is me pulling her hand drawing into vcarve, out as DXF to Sketchup, and a quick render.

Below is a close up of how i broken it into small parts that i can more easily nest (and reduce waste). The trick was to add a locking mechanism that have themeasurements my cutter (1/8") could get into completely. After a few tests, this one works just great.

This is how it will attach to the wall. The first layer will be fastened to the wall from the front side, but on the back side, there will be pocketed allthreads sticking thru ~9". So that when i get all the other layers on, youll fish them onto these bolts, one after the toher. When all but the last are on, you put on a nut, and clamp them tight. THEN, the last layer is pocketed on the backside like the first layer, but with a smooth outer finish. This will act as a end cap to hide the bolts. (The last layer will probably be two 3/4 pieces thick.

I have already cut the puzzle parts, but my camera is broken so i can't send you actual pics of the fit.

First step is to build the trunk, then one branch at a time after that.

2010-02-04T15:44:00.003-08:00

Been developing some Texture Ideas. The idea here is to replace the Flat Background a behind the lettering in the toyboxwes in the previous post, with a texture. So, Te colors for this new toybox are dark purple, and blue-turquoise. The samples below are using Grey, (I wanted to see if i could do Elephant Skin).

They worked out just right. There are 4 colors here,
A Base Coat, (Grey)
A Washing, (Grey Base, Black, and lots of water)
Drybrushing (Grey, Yellow, Red, Tan, and then the same + White)

The Washing causes the paint, which is as consistant as milk, to settle into all the cracks,
The Drybrushing has the opposite effect. One loads the brush, then wipes out the brush's paint, till its barely laying down paint, then the brush is dragged slowly, and softrly across the texture, leaving paint on only the highest points.

The Result?

Custom Toyboxes

2010-01-27T12:23:00.003-08:00

Been working to finish 4 Toyboxes for my Kids.
Each one was better than the last, And with 1 left, i think it will blwo away the competition.
Here you can see #1 (Right) #2 (front Left) and #3 (Back left) which is now finished.

Building a new Machine.

2010-01-01T10:30:00.002-08:00

Here is a picture of my new machine.

2009-08-16T00:19:00.004-07:00

I got the gears all cut out (it was a work in progress, and stil is, seeing s i cut them out to Exactly fit together, and that was simply too tight, and it wouldnt turn.

I adjusted the 2 blue gears (just a tad smaller), and finally cut out the front piece. We hit the hardware store today to find some paints to color them. After painting them, we deided to change the colors up, and we are going for Red on the Front and Back parts.

2009-08-12T23:47:00.002-07:00

This is the beginning of the Geared Cornice Box for the boys room.

Here is the drawing for the cornice box.

Here it is hung on the wall, unpainted

Here it is with the first set of colors we chose for it. (Its scheduled for a repainting VERY soon)

Here is the front of a Toybox i made for my son, on behalf of my wife.

Moving to California

2009-07-27T12:47:00.002-07:00

So we have moved to California. Boy this had been a chance of scenery. The weather is good enough, and has been good enough that i have only wanted air conditioning about 3 times in as many months.

I find myself in an interesting situation. No ones knows who i am here, and so no one has asked me to "help" with anything. In Texas i was helping people all the time, and my days/weeks were full of activities. Here, i am sort of an unknown quantity. Additionally, i don't have a commercial outlet for my machining ability. Needles to saw, we have been using my machine, just not for the same kinds of things we did in Texas.

Mainly we have been making things for Us, The Californian Barry Family (boy that looks weird). We have a custom Name Plate over the Front Door. And i have made a few things for the kids. We had the idea of making Shields and Swords for the kids (We left their old DIY Swords in Texas) but made them completely custom, by having whatever the kids wanted on them. So as of now, we have one T-Rex and one Triceratops Shield. Take that Toys R Us.

Late last night i had the machine cut out some custom Brackets for hanging Curtains over the windows. Our kids really love Blinds, so much so that about 98% f the blinds in our home are broken already, so we have opted to remove them, and get blackout curtains instead. The custom part is that they will attach to either end of the window frame, and hold up a Closet Hanger Rod (Large Wooden Dowel), and in turn they will have a fascia board attached to the front that will allow us to have "Themed" Cornice Boxes for the window Treatments. I'll have to post a picture of this, to be more clear, but simply, the rod can be lifted out strait up (The Cornice Box has no top). The hope is that they'll be "Kid Resistant to 30m" at least.

Last Week my Wife got lost trying to take a screwy street towards a park and passed a place with a large sign stating "Free Wood" When i made it back over there, there was a TON of wood, It looks to be from several large crates. Not the hardest material (its knotty Pine) but it will work for several things we have wanted to build.

I've also gotten my new machine to the point in construction where it was Before we moved. Unfortunately the move had some unforeseen consequences to my Budget, and it may be a while before it is up and running.

clock

2009-03-23T06:59:00.006-07:00

My friend had the idea of branching out into clocks. This represents my first scale replica. This is my friends badge and I scaled it up to create the clock.(I thought that since it was his idea he could be the guinea pig)

Update on the Game Table.

2009-03-17T20:15:00.010-07:00

In discussion with my gaming buddies this moon-scape map (MoonQ20, for all you Gamers out there) was selected for as the next attempt.

There are several problems with machining these maps. Sharp changes in elevation, ie. cliffs, cause the most trouble. If I don't take this into account (and I am discovering that I am a "learn from hard experience kind of guy") then the machine crashes into the cliff and messes the whole carving up. My bits can only accommodate an inch, so I have to plan around the places where it needs to carve deeper than that.

I want this to be a coffee table with glass over the carving...and if I am feeling really ambitious then I'd like to paint this a gray (with a hint of blue) and speckle it with some black atop the "ridges".

video game map

2009-02-18T19:09:00.002-08:00

I play a video game called Total Annihilation Spring. The game has lots of different maps to play on. One of the programmers let me use his map file to see if I could carve it on my machine. This is a very rough first try. I forgot to plan for a grade change too deep for my bit and it threw the whole carving off. It is a possibility novelty item...ie. coffee table of your favorite map for those hard core gamers out there =).

Iris bathroom cupboards

2009-02-18T19:04:00.007-08:00

Pre-installation: 2(of 4) doors with Iris arrangements carved into them.

Post installation and staining.

What do you think?

2009-01-11T21:59:00.005-08:00

Been working on several projects of the last little while.

There is a special industry that has fascinated me ever since i came in contact with it. Industrial / Refinery Firefighting.

A friend of mine, Chauncey Naylor, is the Chief Firefighter (and hes married to the boss's daughter) asked me about turning their company logo into a 3D carving.

He gave me a copy of his logo (seen here)

Simply put, This is the result.

birthday presents

2008-11-06T18:02:00.004-08:00

My son had a birthday last month. I found the design for this and decided to have the machine cut out the pieces so I could build it for him. Just what every little boy needs...his own back hoe!

I had been wanting to play around some more with "name" shelves. My wife said we didn't have enough room for any more "stuff" in our small apartment, so our neighbors and good friends allowed me to use their daughter's name in my experiments. This became a belated birthday present to her. Can you figure out the name(answer below)?

answer: Ella Rachelle Packard

Themed Bookshelves

2008-09-10T21:51:00.005-07:00

After building my wife's bookshelf I wanted to play around with the concept of themed furniture. There is a huge supply of "oops" board in the Cabinet Shop, so I have a lot of material to practice/experiment with. I even messed us three times. Man i love those lessons.

New Product Line

2008-08-20T22:03:00.005-07:00

Many years ago i was sitting on the front porch at a friends house. As was the custom at times, his mom came out and sat with us. While we talked i noticed that there were screw sticking out all over her rocker. They looked like they had been placed in a rush. When i asked her what happened, she said something to the effect that she had been waiting for it to be repaired for a long time and when it finally happened this is what she got.

She's married to a train engineer, who builds wood cabinetry and the like as a hobby, from his back yard.

What i learned from that was, I wanted to make sure that if i "did" something, or had a certain skill, that my family got priority.

Well, unfortunately I just remembered that self promise. My wife has wanted these cabinets for a while, and since i needed to experiment with a new product, i asked her about helping me design them.

So here they are. She chose the pattern on the sides. They turned out really nice. Now only if i could have been making some really big cabinets, and done tons of carvings.

Maybe i can find a cabinet customer who is interested in putting some of this type of cabinet in say, a kids room?

Image these from the floor, as book shelves, with symetrical designs cut in all the vertical boards.

Ahh, Paris!

2008-08-20T21:19:00.008-07:00

A Nail Salon commissioned this work. We had a heck of a time getting it working correctly. It was a lesson in patience.

It was a new concept to me when the painter said "Where do you want your name?" i thought, i can put my name on this? "Its your work, right?"

Darn tootn' it is!

early days

2008-08-20T20:54:00.005-07:00

So my wife was looking thru the pictures we have stored on the computer and found a bunch of pictures of things i made "in the beginning" when i was still just fiddling around. I figured that since there aren't a ton that i would just post them all.

This is absolutely the "First" door i did. I went to my friend the cabinet maker and asked him for a "throw away" door.

I carved this rose pattern into it, and showed it to him. When i brought it to show him he said "Looks like i need to get you more doors to cut" and we became business partners. I later filled the carving in with wall putty. It can be dyed to fit whatever color. I just used plain old white.

Pied Piper?

This is the full shot of something we posted before. The cabinets are REALLY Big because the coke machine they were going to get was allot larger. After the cabinet were made, they changed to this smaller one.

First Gift?

Some of the other things I tried out:

This one, and the next one are the front and back of the same door. On this side the design is "sticking out".

On this side the design is "Cut in"

mantle-start to finish

2008-08-06T18:20:00.005-07:00

A) Everything starts somewhere. This is where it starts. Line art is a common starting place for our designs.
B) This "Displacement map" is a map for the machine to know where to lift up or drop down.
C) The Computer gives us a rendering of the product that the machine will do and...
D) This is a closeup of the design.

This mantle is going in a new home. The contractor hasn't stained it as of this posting, but as soon as it is I will be out to take pictures of it in place. Its about 8 ft. across.

A closeup of the design.

Pharmacy Sign

2008-07-18T08:48:00.005-07:00

This is a sign we did for a Local Pharmacy. It was our very very first piece for a business.

Which car would you drive?

2008-07-18T05:18:00.003-07:00

It has taken me a long, i mean a VERY long time to figure this process out.

Google acquired a project a while back called "Sketchup". Its a very rudimentary/powerful 3d modeling tools. Its the way in which Google is populating the digital globe they own "Google Earth" with 3d models of most of the major cities of the world.

Anyhow, Anyone can get it, cause its free, and anyone can model with it, and many do. People have been modeling all sorts of things with it for a long long long time, and some are very very good at it. Everything about it is free.

We've got this high-fangled carving machine and we have all these models. I know your thinking what i am thinking...

Why not build your next pinewood derby car on this thing? Why not, you ask? Thats what i said.

So here are my top three picks for vehicle models.

The results of speaking Face to Face

2008-07-17T12:58:00.004-07:00

If you look back a few weeks you'll see my concept drawing for a cafeteria sign. I must admit I didn't think it was a "complete" design, and hadn't figured out what was going to "complete" the job.

Well, i was in luck. We had the opportunity to introduce me (the modeler) to the client, and we got some feedback. She didn't have to "say" she didn't really like the first design, and that's great, actually.

After speaking with her for a few minutes we had a much better idea of what she was looking for in a "Dixie Diner Sign" We sketched this on a sticky pad, and if i can find the sticky note, then i will post it also, but this is what we have come up with. Its a much prettier design. The colors are just placeholder, as in she will be deciding her own colors, or going with these.

First time for Furniture

2008-07-14T14:07:00.006-07:00

Up until now we haven't made anything that wasn't just a carving on an existing piece of cabinetry. Today that all changes. Last weekend we stayed in the shop till 10:30 pm getting the final parts for the Cartoon Cabinet we like to call "Dr. Seuss" It's not complete, but we are done with nearly all of our parts of the project.

No Hinges yet for the doors, but this is how it all lays out. Can't wait to see what the painter does to it. I'll keep you posted.

Daycare Dinner

2008-07-11T13:28:00.006-07:00

Or rather "Dixie Diner".

This is a sign i have been tinkering with for a while now. Its supposed to be for the cafeteria at a daycare center. Maybe those places don't have a cafeteria, but what this one will have is a Diner.

This one is made using a funny technique i postulated and subsequently found others using where you program the machinery to adjust how "Deep" its cuts to be relative to how "Dark" the picture is. Meaning, that you can "paint" in shades of grey and create what is sometimes known as a "Displacement map"
Here are the results

Cartoon Cabinetry

2008-06-21T18:51:00.006-07:00

I think this would make Dr. Suess quite proud. I think I might have seen a "Who" with one of these in their room.

We've decided to open a store front (mainly to see clients) and this is an idea I was given for something in the front to "show off" to clients. I am hoping that when people see this they say "Wow, and yall made this, right?"

In any event, this is one thing we are currently working on (No that isn't our picture). We went to the "Big" city near by and on the way I had the thought to call and make some cold contacts. I figured, we are already in town and with gas like it is, why not make the most of the trip.

James Helms picked up at a The Design Studio in Beaumont Texas. He was interested and available so we headed over.

About 10 minutes after we get there James is crammed in an 8' x 12' room with Me, Johnny Jr, and 3 other Interior Decorators. They were pretty impressed with the things we brought with us and has called us in around a computer screen running around the net, pulling a picture up and asking "Can you make that?" "Yes Ma'am", thats what i was always taught.

It was exciting. We have been thinking about who we should go speak with and i had had the thought that speaking with an Interior Decorator would be more of what we are looking for seeing as we aren't selling a product but an ability. Interior decorators seemed more likely to be interested in being able to make something odd/inordinately, and in my opinion, thats what we do best.

Ever since I started working with CNC Machines i have been thinking about "Crazy" things i could do with them. I keep telling myself "Cabinet shops give you square corners, and strait sides. We give you everything else."

I wonder what the next design firm will show us on their screen?

Learning to carve from a Photo

2008-06-18T18:42:00.010-07:00

I've been honing my skills at starting with a photograph and ending up with a carving like you see here in these two photos. Were currently working on a proposal for an heirloom quality desk that a cabinet shop is putting a bid. You might have guessed it has a religious theme. I think i really like the way the clouds are showing up.

I also just recently had a client ask us to put this grape cluster on some cabinet doors. When we went tot he appointment she had never see our work before. (she was referred to us from the cabinet shop) When she saw the door we brought (we borrowed one of those daisy doors from earlier) she decided she really liked it. So she said that now that she has seen it she wants us to do some "turn-of-the-century" carvings on the new vanity that is going in also. I don't know what these "Carvings" are gonna look like, but i am sure glad for the added business.

Here is another example. This one might make more sense if i explain whats going on. One of the ways that i can control my machine is by having it interpret the blacks and whites as depth of cutting on the machine. Here are two images I took a clip art i found and put a bad blur on it. The blur helps put a gradient of greys where it was just stark white beside jet black. I tell my machine to treat the black and the deepest cut and the white as the highest cut. So as it comes across grey, its a somewhere in the middle cut, and the clip art ends up rounded. Works pretty well on just about anything. You might take another look at the first two pictures and you will see why the colors are REALLY off in the photo. (Thank you Paint.NET)

Early Carvings.

2008-06-12T20:44:00.003-07:00

These doors were a request to help continue the theme of daises in this room. If you look close on the shelf to the left there are some of those daises. These are Red Oak doors with a Walnut stain.

These are in the office of a Cabinet maker. Its been a great source for referrals for us as customers who come for cabinets have begun asking "Can you do that on my cabinets?"

These were the display surrounding the soda fountains at a convenience store. The "Cold Drinks" was above the machine, and the "Cola" were on the left and right sides on the soda fountain. I'll try to get a picture of the entire piece in place. The carvings make allot more sense in the context. The store isn't finished yet, but hopefully we can get a picture of this piece as it will be seen by the public. The color in the "Cold Drinks" is more true to the actual piece.

Getting a Presence on the Internet

2008-06-12T20:10:00.002-07:00

I don't think i really know where t start, so if this feels something like jumping and grabbing onto a train going 50.... sorry.

About a month back we started our operating the machine for money. It wasn't more than 2 weeks earlier that i had finished (or atleast gotten functional) the CNC Router.

In case you didn't get to this site by knowing exactly what you were looking for in the first place, this is the Blog of a company in Vidor Texas. Were near the Louisiana border. So far there are just three of us.

My name is Kenneth, and I'm kinda the Mechanical / Design department. Johnny Ray is the business man, and Johnny Jr is the Marketer.

Were in the CNC Business. We own a CNC Router / Mill (for those who know what it is), which is essentially a machine capable of carving wood and other soft materials. We cut wood. From carving flowers or words on a door, to eclectic custom furniture, to.... anything you can think of. Essentially, if you wand something, and can't find it in a catalog, we are where you need to be.

We can take a sketch on a napkin and turn it into a carved piece of wood. There really aren't many limits to what we ca do. I'd give more examples but one of the reasons why i started this blog was to show the work we are doing. I don't have many pictures right now, but i will hopefully post the work we have been doing. We are pretty proud of our work.