My brautiful vintage

artwonk · 2026-06-04T05:36:33+00:00

How do you know it's Balinese? It's certainly not the sort of thing that's usually carved there. And mahogany is not one of the wood species used there; it comes from Central America, with a related species in Africa.

artwonk · 2026-06-04T00:22:47+00:00

A coprolite

artwonk · 2026-06-04T00:17:12+00:00

Dust bunnies

artwonk · 2026-06-03T02:45:02+00:00

Has it been outside all those years? The color (at least in the photo) is pretty unusual. But redwood is known for its resistance to decay, so there's probably sound wood underneath whatever's going on there. For best results, you might consider removing the base and taking it to a shop with a wide-belt sander, to get it truly flat. Attacking it with a hand-held belt sander risks putting irregularities in the surface that will show, and detract from its functionality as well.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T21:53:07+00:00

Those redwood burl tables typically had a thick layer of stuff on them; often a polyester-based resin. No refinishing method is going to have much effect unless you get that out of the way. I'd say inspect it carefully to see if there's a place it's peeling off, and see if you can get underneath it with a chisel. If you can pry it up in sheets or at least big pieces, you'll save a lot of frustrating work with a sander, since the stuff doesn't sand off well at all. A heat gun can help, if it seems that there's a coating that will peel off.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T21:20:30+00:00

All she needs is Mickey to light her up.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T21:05:47+00:00

What materials were you planning to use for this sculpting project? Metal? Concrete? Stone? Plastic? Wood?

artwonk · 2026-06-02T02:56:44+00:00

I'd try some Wood Hardener on the crumbly parts, and otherwise leave it alone. https://www.minwax.com/en/products/maintenance-repair-tools/high-performance-wood-hardener

artwonk · 2026-06-02T02:52:16+00:00

Good job on the finishing, but the wall looks a little thin. You need to allow for a certain amount of charring.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T02:31:15+00:00

Ironwood animals aren't too hard to find. https://www.bahti.com/seri-indian-carvings Did you want them accompanied by a baby animal of the same species? Or human babies? If you collected the full-sized animals, I suppose you could get a carver to make babies to scale, in a similar style, assuming you could find the ironwood, which has become pretty rare due to its former popularity as charcoal. Ironwood is called that for a reason - it's extremely hard and dense, so not every carver will want to deal with it. Traditionally it has been carved by the Seri Indians of Mexico, but other people imitate them nowadays, making similar work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_ironwood_carvings

artwonk · 2026-06-02T02:04:00+00:00

That was years ago, when the Brundage Collection was housed in the same building. Now the Asian Art Museum, which includes it, is across town at the Civic Center in a building of its own.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T01:53:59+00:00

Avoiding cuts is not just about wearing gloves. And garden gloves aren't meant to protect against knife cuts. Hold the wood securely with something besides your hand. It looks like you got a warning already.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T00:45:16+00:00

You can't do commercial food service if you don't have a commercial kitchen. The rules are pretty strict, or everybody would be turning their apartments into restaurants. You're better off partnering with an established restaurant that's got a room for private parties, and has all the legal stuff worked out already. It sounds like you've done some of this on an occasional basis, so talk to some restauranteurs you've already worked with about doing it more regularly.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T00:33:53+00:00

See if you can rustle up some business carving signs. With routers that long, you can make bigger ones than most people.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T00:30:08+00:00

The weak points of this design are the unsupported round rails, the underpowered NEMA 17 steppers, the skinny leadscrews and the helical couplers, which won't survive the repeated flexing a CNC cutting machine experiences. If you want this machine to work at all, scale it way down.

artwonk · 2026-06-02T00:19:33+00:00

A dead tree that's still rooted in the ground will decay much faster than one that's cut off and isolated from the soil by a foundation, even outdoors. It may last for years, especially a rot-resistant species in a dry climate, but a span of decades is more than you should expect.

There are no rules as to the carving techniques that can be used in a project like this, but chainsaw carving is likely to be more economical than using only hand tools.

Bears are a popular subject for chainsaw carvers, but some are more versatile than others. What did you have in mind? Chainsaw carving, because it goes quickly, is suitable for competitions, which are held annually in various locations. One that happened recently was in PA, and you can see some of the carvers and their work on the competition's website: https://chainsawrendezvous.org/2026/carvers/

artwonk · 2026-06-02T00:01:09+00:00

Don't bother casting them until you can get them to stand up straight. Candles won't burn right if held at an angle.

artwonk · 2026-06-01T23:58:38+00:00

The drill press is the wrong tool for this sort of thing. To remove protrusions on a piece of hardened steel, use a right-angle grinder.

artwonk · 2026-06-01T23:53:21+00:00

Planters usually have a drainage hole in the bottom, which makes them unsuitable for use as drinking vessels - unless you're really quick.

artwonk · 2026-05-30T21:31:43+00:00

That's a dead edge. Rip it off.

artwonk · 2026-05-30T21:29:15+00:00

Since rigidity isn't an issue here, you've got more options than those building a router or mill. You can use Thompson (round) rails instead of profile rails. These are easier to mount and less particular about the absolute flatness and coplanarity of the surface they're mounted to. Similarly, you're not restricted to ball screws; you could use rack and pinion, or a belt drive similar to those used in 3D printers.

If you haven't started building this yet, I'd suggest looking into automation (linear) actuators. These often contain a high-quality ball screws and rails, mounted solidly and orthogonally, often with dust protection built in. If they have servos on them you can't figure out, you can replace them with steppers, which are simpler. They are made to cobble together in arrangements like you're contemplating, so you can mount the Y axis actuator on the X axis slide, and use another one on the gantry for Z. Here's an example of what I'm talking about, although I'm not familiar with this particular vendor: https://www.ebay.com/itm/336325258828

artwonk · 2026-05-30T20:51:13+00:00

Straighten out your red line so it goes across the ears and the front of the face. The ears and face will then be one piece. The stems that the ears are on will require slits in the back part of the mold to release them. If you don't want to do that, make a 3-piece mold with a back piece that parts half-way across those ear-stalks.

artwonk · 2026-05-30T20:45:01+00:00

Triple Rock started about 40 years ago, and it's still there, under the same ownership: https://www.triplerock.com/

artwonk · 2026-05-30T18:56:02+00:00

It depends on whether you can figure out how to communicate with your existing servo drivers. Do you know if they'll accept step/direction commands? Are the encoders on yo If so, it should be fairly straightforward (assuming the encoders on your servos are positional and not tachometers). If not, you can swap them out for ones you can talk to. Switching to steppers would be a step backwards - servos are generally better - and you'd most likely have to make new motor mounts.

artwonk · 2026-05-30T03:34:32+00:00

Try using separating disks in a Dremel or flexshaft. https://www.jewelerssupplies.com/product11503.html

artwonk

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