Hollow out

What is the best way to hollow out a piece without cutting through the wood?

I’d say it sort of depends on the specifics of what you’re trying to do. Got an example of what you’re going for?

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Hello Evansd2, I am making a spoon and the part I need hollowed out should be able to pick up and hold like a real spoon should. No example, just my first time going at it. I did make one spoon and I think what I should be asking is how far to go down for engraving the area.

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Ah, that’s a little tricky, considering the curve that you’re going for. How thick is the wood blank that you’re wanting to hollow out?

If it’s under 1/2" you’re in good shape. If I were doing it I would probably use a 3d engrave and make a shaded spoon shape. One sec, I’ll show you an example of what I mean.

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@evansd2 Here is what I did.

Yeah you’re partly there. I think if I were in your shoes at this point I would probably take that one and just sand out the bowl as needed.

The other method is trickier, you need to make a spoon-shaped gradient oval and then engrave it as a 3d engrave… which might get you closer to the bowl shape you want, but it takes a little more effort in your design program.

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The other option is to buy premade spoons and engrave the handles with a jig of some sort.

Lots of prior art to be inspired by:

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=wooden%20spoon

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I just now figured that I could double the spoon as is and cut the top area out and seal it together with strong bond wood glue.

Like this:

30 spoons for 6$, that’s 20 cents per spoon. Would you pay 20cents per spoon not to have to deal with the bowl problem? I know I would. Think of the time and effort savings, it may be a pretty easy decision when you think about how much trouble this will save you.

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You got a awesome point. I like you but I don’t like you lol - how did you find those? I’ve been messing around with google for a while and this never came up.

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I just hit amazon and searched for “wooden spoons”. There are many options, all kinds of spoons of different sizes. You can spend 5 minutes on there and probably narrow down to a couple of favorites pretty quickly.

You aren’t the first to say so :wink:

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No really, you are awesome. Thank you for helping me. I do pride myself in being able to create things myself so that I don’t have to rely on another business to do such in case of another shut down, shipping issues, etc. But I get it. Sometimes you just got to do it. Sincerely, YOU ROCK!

Btw if you’ve never fooled around with using jigs to align stuff like premade spoons, that’s a whole other discussion. Luckily there are lots of guides on here about how to do it:

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=jig%20in%3Afirst

@takitus is always a good source in that third result:

Same for @techquest89, good pics of the general idea:

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Those are neat. I was going to make some dog tags but haven’t done such yet. I’m sure to get going on them by March of next year. So much to do and so little time. Have a good night, I have to get food on the table and in the belly. I’ll be sure to hit you up when I get this finalized and done.

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That’s what I did.

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As promised @evansd2 I have made the spoons myself and I feel really good about them. It does the job for me and I like it. Still keeping it inhouse instead of outsourcing and that works for me. Everyone that has seen them like them.

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Nice job!

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