Creativity

When I talk about woodworking, I talk about straight lines and right angles.  You haven't seen me produce chairs with curved seats or highly sculpted pieces ... ever.  Those things aren't what I do well.  But I added a CNC router to my arsenal of tools and it allows me to now add different dimensions and shapes to the work I am doing.

Let's start  with the basics.  CNC stands for "computer numerically controlled."  The idea behind a CNC anything is that a computer will its control the movement.  So, a CNC router is a router controlled by a computer.  The computer makes the decisions to move the router in any of 3 directions, or any combination of the three.  The three directions, typically identified as x, y, and z, are left to right in front of you; closer or further away; and up or down. The combination of these in very small increments makes virtually any cutting pattern possible with patience and time.  This type of technology has been available in large shops for years, with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Recently, CNC routers have become much more accessible to woodworkers like me.  As with many things, when they came to market they were expensive and a little fickle. Over time they have come down in price, and have become much more consistent and reliable. As I have worked with my CNC router, I've destroyed some wood and broken a couple of router bits, but overall, learning this new technology has been relatively easy and straightforward. Now I just need to find additional things to make.

So far, I have created functional things for the shop. If pieces need to be exact dimension, this technology will let you dial that in. If you want to work to the thousandth of an inch, you can. I started messing around with inlays. The first thing I did was to inset a cutout of the State of Iowa into one of the cutting boards I regularly make.  It came out all right, but I still need to perfect the technique. I've made a couple of signs and one of them was good enough to give away, while one is hanging in the shop, good enough for me, but not the world.  With practice these will also get better.

This Star Wars trivet is nothing that I would have ever tackled before.  I wouldn't have even thought about it.  But with the help of Inventables, I could download the plan and run it on the CNC. 

For any of you looking to get into this kind of work, I have found Inventables to be very helpful.  They have a good website of projects that will let you get started. You can make a copy of the item you want to cut out and make changes to fit it to your personal needs.  Although I haven't taken advantage of the feature, you can even buy the product to make the project from for many projects on their website.  I have plenty of wood in the shop that I've been able to use and don't see that changing in the near future.

Okay, on other fronts ...

Those of you who have followed my adventures for a while might remember that this week was a big one.  This is the week I had agreed to have the teardrop trailer finished for my sister.  It coincides with a rather big date for her.  Enough said about that.  Anyway, although I am close, I was unsuccessful in completing this project on time.  Fortunately, my sister asked if I could keep the trailer until she has a place to store it.  It looks like I have a few extra months to get this done, and that is just about the amount of time it will take.  I have included pictures of how things are progressing.

It looks as though when I finish my sister's trailer, I may have another to work on.  This won't be a teardrop but a tailgating trailer. We are just beginning to work on the concept, but it should be a lot of fun.  This will, like the teardrop, take a bit of time but should be interesting. 

Thanks for reading my blog.  If you have crafts or projects you would like to share, I would love to see them.  Have a great day.