So I ended up getting kind of sick immediately after my last blog post and I haven’t been able to work on ANYTHING because I just spent two weeks laying down doing nothing… and to make sure I was good and recovered I removed the temptation and spend two those weeks with family a few hours away.
Today is my first full day back.. it’s nice to be back at it!
This arrived in my absence. :) It was part of a trade we did with a good friend in Missouri… I sent him a totally different piece of equipment that he really, really wanted/needed and return he ordered this and had it sent to me. I will have to go get appropriate fittings and such, but this is going to attach to the sheet router sometime this week or next. Can’t wait! A shop vac is not an ideal solution for this setup because I run the sheet router for hours on end (sometimes solid days), but a dust collector should be able to deal with that. I know it’s not the greatest dust collector that ever collected dust, but I feel it should be a perfectly adequate stepping stone.
I then spent a few hours re-roughing some spots that had caused me trouble previously. I don’t know how, but I totally missed them before…
I also stopped at Woodcraft today to replace this cutter. Guess when I bought it…... if your guess was FIFTEEN DAYS AGO… you win! Yeah, I’m hard on tools. I had a nice chat with Freud’s CS today and they are going to replace the bit for me, but it’ll be by mail and I simply can’t wait that long so I purchased a replacement as well. You know, you can never have too many.. especially small round-nose router bits! It’s what I use more than anything except a V-bit.
Also a huge shout-out and appreciation to the staff at the Grand Rapids Woodcraft… they’ve been extremely helpful and supportive through this whole project. They were more than happy to spend over half an hour with me today puzzling over bits and we found an extension bit that should work great for me.
A peek at the surface of the whole thing.
Tomorrow I do not have to run errands / get everything set up again / spend an hour trying to figure out how to fix my vise / etc so it will be a long day of lots of cutting. YAY! I’m approaching the point where I can think about shellac and I can’t wait!
-- Lis - Michigan - http://www.missmooseart.com - https://www.etsy.com/people/lisbokt
5 comments so far
BertFlores58
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1527 posts in 1088 days
#1 posted 634 days ago
Hi Lis,
Good to hear you are back again on your earth project. You mentioned shellac finish. This is very glossy finish that will affect the contours emphasis because of light reflection. I know you are very much experience on photography, but I believe that flat finish absorbs light rather than reflects. Satin finish or semi gloss will be better. Anyway, you will be covering it with glass… Up to you, just a suggestion. Thanks.
-- Bert
tyskkvinna
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1294 posts in 1152 days
#2 posted 634 days ago
In my experience with this kind of carving, when you have the grain open in so many directions, the shellac doesn’t get particularly glossy until after a few coats. :)
-- Lis - Michigan - http://www.missmooseart.com - https://www.etsy.com/people/lisbokt
BertFlores58
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1527 posts in 1088 days
#3 posted 634 days ago
Thanks for that Lis. We have the same thought about the light reflection that will give a really good art. I believe the beauty will now be in the finishing while revealing the nice contours of our earth. I know you have the skill for this… Keep it up.
-- Bert
Kjuly
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288 posts in 1452 days
#4 posted 634 days ago
Hi Lis,
I agree, Gary has a great crew at the West Michigan Woodcraft.
What is a sheet router?
Keith
-- Keith, Charlotte, MI www.julyswoodworks.com
tyskkvinna
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1294 posts in 1152 days
#5 posted 634 days ago
Keith- it’s a computer controlled (CNC) router. :) You can see it in action in this blog post.
-- Lis - Michigan - http://www.missmooseart.com - https://www.etsy.com/people/lisbokt
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