I remembered this post by @joe Where he asked about getting some cut log blanks, and where would he get those. I suddenly thought, who has 2 thumbs, and recently did this? (and had 2 thumbs after doing this too!)
This guy!
(haha - my boss called and asked if he could borrow my chain saw as a large oak branch had crushed through his fence - I asked a couple of questions and realized he had never used a chainsaw in his life and didn’t own kevlars, steel toes, protective metal faceshield, etc and I figured if I wanted to get promoted I probably shouldn’t contribute to the death of my service chief).
Well out I went to my wood drying rack with my trusty bow-saw, cut off the end piece by about 1/2" (since I figured the chainsaw spews chain oil all the time) and then cut a thin slice off (actually worked remarkably well). Sanded it first with 150 then 220 with my random orbit.
Wrapped it in high-tack masking. But what to make? Well at first I looked at the scotch in my hand, but that wasn’t useful (who uses a coaster with scotch) and then thought about my daughter who is doing a clinical research fellowship in Dublin at Mater Misericordiae hospital, and thought Aha!
Go doctor, researcher, builder, maker, lumberjack and a bunch of other titles I’m sure…
You need a bigger head with all the hats you wear! Hmm maybe make one with your PRU…lol
Really nice! Can I ask if the graphic was an SVG, JPG, PDF, or any other 3 letter file type? I hope PDF. I’ve been designing some items and printing them to PDF with different colors for engrave type. My is scheduled to be here tomorrow and I’m checking all my first designs for engrave and cut. I’ve got them set at PDFs so far, so I hope I didn’t misunderstand how the machine handles them.
If I did misunderstand, production will slow to a crawl.
@henryhbk Beautiful and awesome. Now I want to make coasters.
Hope I don’t come off as a conceited ass with the next comment…
I’m not sure with smaller diameter wood, but when you try to buy log slices by those who know, they are diagonal slices, not cookie cutter like yours. The reason is as wood dries, when cut like that, it will split. When cut at a diagonal, it TENDS not to split as much. Is there an optimal angle and all that type of nuance, I’m sure , but I don’t know much past the diagonal part. I’m sure there are forums with pages of arguments about it. And I’m sure other members will better know then me on this.
Sorry, just a heads up. Don’t mean to crap on your awesome looking coaster. Just don’t want you to make 100 then have to do it all over again next year.
I am honored that you think my hand sawing skills are so accurate as to produce a square cut… Trust me, it’s diagonal!
If you mean the original logo was a PNG. I brought the PNG into AI, used auto trace, removed the (r) symbol which got mangled, and replaced that with an actual text (r). I traced the logo as a 3-color logo and then did the white trace removal that you need to do. Added the text on a path circularly. Then saved it out as a SVG with convert-to-outlines turned on in the text. Although I had guessed pretty well with the size, I ended up scaling it slightly down in the GFUI to fit (thanks to optical alignment)
Overnight I had let it sit in my PrintDry (figured it does a nice job of desiccating filament on my printers) so when I took it out this morning it is ever so slightly bowed on the bottom (nothing that either a quick sand or some felt pads on the bottom) wouldn’t fix. Interestingly some of the gloss towards the heart of the tree where the engraving is darkest went away in the dryer.
Very nice. Making me rethink my plans with some of the local spare wood and my bandsaw. (I’d been planning on resaw ripping, but crosscut might just the the thing.)
That sounds like a great idea (wish I had a bandsaw) let me know how that works. I do have a dual miter saw, which I was thinking of using. Although with a 10" I can only cut through 3.5" if I recall (someone with actual carpentry experience can correct me if I am wrong)
Yeah, with a 10" blade minus the hub it’s about 3.5" depth of cut. If you’re really stupid you can do it from both sides though. (I’ve done that with a table saw, and strongly recommend arranging that the workpiece be held by something other than your fingers.)
Every now and again I think about installing the riser block on the bandsaw for 12" depth of cut, but handling a piece of wood that size is daunting.
I decided a while ago not to let downed trees go to waste. I’m pleased to see folks doing something other than burning them!
When I first moved into the new house, there was a Silver Maple that all of my abutters hated, and frankly, I had no love for it either, so after a few beers, with some climbing equipment, my neighbor and I climbed it, limbed it, and got it down without hurting anybody.
This past winter, I was on the hook to make a “Secret Snowflake” gift for another member of Artisan’s Asylum, and so I tried something I wasn’t sure I knew how to do, and made a solid maple beer mug out of some of that tree. It pains me that I’ve only got the one picture of it:
Whoa. OK, that’s amazing. We will all have to get together (you are closer to @joe, but I do get to meffa not infrequently - my wife is a double jumbo, and I am tufts faculty as well)
For the table saw, a sled with clamps. But that was on (big) rectangular stock. What I’ve seen people do is make some kind of sled/mount/whatever that can be clamped or run against a fence, and then screw through that into the piece being cut. You sacrifice some of the wood that way, and have to be careful where the screws go, but consider the alternatives.
is scheduled to be here tomorrow and I’m checking all my first designs for engrave and cut. I’ve got them set at PDFs so far, so I hope I didn’t misunderstand how the machine handles them.
