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Feb 27, 2023 18:21:57   #
Bigbum Loc: Washington
 
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!

Attached file:
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Attached file:
(Download)



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Feb 27, 2023 18:40:03   #
ripogenu Loc: norfolk, MA
 
Bigbum wrote:
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictio... (show quote)


nice work! Big

Reply
Feb 27, 2023 18:47:54   #
Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.
 
Bigbum wrote:
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictio... (show quote)


Beautiful job Bigbum. Thanks for sharing your story.
I hope your recovery goes well and you can get out fishing soon.

Reply
 
 
Feb 27, 2023 19:46:55   #
Slimshady Loc: Central Pennsylvania
 
Now that is impressive and shows a lot of hard work Bigbum. No wonder your brother flipped when he saw it. Congrats on creating a masterpiece

Reply
Feb 27, 2023 20:35:32   #
Billycrap2 Loc: Mason county,W(BY GOD) Virginia, πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΈπŸ¦…
 
Bigbum wrote:
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictio... (show quote)


Wow beautiful work there nicely done on the detail specifically the bullet hole πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½πŸΊπŸΊ

Reply
Feb 27, 2023 21:08:13   #
bknecht Loc: Northeast pa
 
Bigbum wrote:
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictio... (show quote)

That is pretty darn cool there Big.

Reply
Feb 27, 2023 22:47:34   #
Bigbum Loc: Washington
 
Fredfish wrote:
Beautiful job Bigbum. Thanks for sharing your story.
I hope your recovery goes well and you can get out fishing soon.


Thanks. So far so good on the back.

Reply
 
 
Feb 27, 2023 22:50:11   #
Whitey Loc: Southeast ohio
 
Bigbum wrote:
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictio... (show quote)

Very cool man thanks for sharing your story and pics. Hope ya heal well an soon πŸ‘

Reply
Feb 28, 2023 06:52:05   #
OJdidit Loc: Oak Creek Wisconsin
 
Very cool Bb, that is a great memento!
Good luck with your back!

Reply
Feb 28, 2023 08:08:19   #
Flytier Loc: Wilmington Delaware
 
ripogenu wrote:
nice work! Big


That is one of the best takes I've seen on this site. Outstanding work.

Reply
Feb 28, 2023 11:14:47   #
FixorFish Loc: SW Oregon
 
Sweet project and execution, Bigbum.
As a retired custom furniture maker, I'm a bit jealous over your CNC. Always figured one would surely "up my game with possibilities". But being a total Luddite when it comes to "computer things", it's probably just as well that I didn't have one....it's that 'programming thingy' that would have been my stumbling block.
You obviously don't have that problem, nice end result for your brother. Job well done, sir !

Reply
 
 
Feb 28, 2023 11:17:12   #
Bigbum Loc: Washington
 
FixorFish wrote:
Sweet project and execution, Bigbum.
As a retired custom furniture maker, I'm a bit jealous over your CNC. Always figured one would surely "up my game with possibilities". But being a total Luddite when it comes to "computer things", it's probably just as well that I didn't have one....it's that 'programming thingy' that would have been my stumbling block.
You obviously don't have that problem, nice end result for your brother. Job well done, sir !


I gotta admit the learning curve was steep but you can teach an old dog.

Reply
Feb 28, 2023 11:37:27   #
Bigbum Loc: Washington
 
Thank you. And I had a blast doin it!

Reply
Feb 28, 2023 13:46:08   #
GLA Loc: WA State
 
Bigbum wrote:
Thank you. And I had a blast doin it!


Nicely done and a wonderful way to commemorate a fine memory!

Reply
Feb 28, 2023 14:34:06   #
HenryG Loc: Falmouth Cape Cod Massachusetts
 
Bigbum wrote:
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictions- max 10# lifting and limited bending and twisting. Also no driving if I'm on my "I don't give a shit" pills. Surgery went well I was told so just have to put in my time for recovery (which probably means no fishing for a bit). So before I get to the point of climbing the walls from boredom I have been venturing out to my shop, starting a fire in the wood stove, and doing odd projects, mostly organizing my tackle boxes. I have been eyeing my CNC machine and have some projects in mind. Heres a CNC story-

Back in July of 2019 I was visiting my brother in North Idaho. We were mainly fishing Pend Oreille Lake unless we got blown off. Out of the blue said brother announced we had other plans one fine day. Seems the CAF (Commemorative Air Force) was in town for the weekend at the small airfield in Coeur d Alene and he had (as a surprise to me) booked us a flight on the B-25 that was there in town. They also had a B-17 for flights also. We went off on schedule and had a 20 minute flight over Lake Coeur d Alene and the Idaho panhandle. To say it was a once in a lifetime experience would be understating. We both had waist gunner seats (guns in place) and the view was to die for. One by one the flight steward allowed us to squirm back the the tail gunner bubble in the ass end. What can I say...... Afterwards the copilot shot some pics of my brother and I. I printed one of the pictures and have in hanging in my shop. Fast forward 6 months to January 2020. I decided I wanted to try my hand at engraving that picture onto a piece of aluminum. I spent hours on my office computer converting the color photo to a black and white line drawing that would be suitable for engraving. After I felt comfortable with the image I put it on a USB thumb drive and took it out the the shop for use on the computer hooked up to the CNC machine.

For this type of engraving I would use an 1/8" shank 60 degree diamond tipped bit. This bit would mounted into a 1/4" shank spring loaded bit holder, which would in turn mount into the CNC router. The router would not be powered during the engraving process. The bit would be dragged along the tool paths under spring tension allowing the diamond tip to engrave. Spring tension ensured consistent pressure along the routes except where the computer commands the router to be lifted above the work surface for a position move. After a few demo runs and project size adjustments I was ready to run it. I used a piece of .060 mill finished aluminum sheet goods left over from my teardrop trailer mfg. days (another story boys and girls). The engraving went off without a hitch and I was extremely pleased with the results. Here I had in my grubby little hands an engraved rectangle of the fly boys from July. My brother back in Idaho had no idea what I was up to. Now with the creative juice gates fully opened things started to evolve. Somehow the idea of making this artwork resemble a section of airplane fuselage materialized. Heck I was halfway there with the mill aluminum. I let 2 edges "factory" and riveted them (rivets compliment of teardrops again) as per aircraft practice. The other 2 edges I distressed and made the a little ragged, as if they were part of a wreckage. The Air Force star decal completed the package. I printed off a copy of the original color picture and sized it to the aluminum image via my large format printer. I was ready to send it off the brother in N. Idaho. Something kept me from packaging it up. Almost a week went by. Something was missing.
My wife stopped me one morning on my way out to the shop with the aluminum engraving and a .22 rifle. "Uh, where are you going with the gun dear". We live in the city with houses all around but have a pretty good buffer distance from our property lines. We are fortunate to have found a house on 2.2 acre but in the city. Hence the large shop, etc. The shop generates quite a bit of noise when in use- planers, compressors, saws, routers and what have you. Drop a board onto the concrete floor and it sounds like a gunshot went off. "Oh, I'm just gonna do a little work" I said. To me, my engraving was lacking something. Something that would set it off. Something totally random.............
I propped my engraving against a round of unspilt firewood and, well, did a bit of plinking. For a little bit of background "white noise" I fired up my dust collector. After 5 strategically placed shots I was satisfied. Viola!
When I came back to the house there was no SWAT team waiting and I showed off my handiwork to my wife. Her comment- "Your the only person I know who creates artwork the goes and shoots holes in it". Now it was ready for packaging and shipment. Brother flipped when he received it!
I had back surgery 6 days ago and am on restrictio... (show quote)

Awesome work Bigbum good luck with your recovery.πŸ™‚πŸ‘πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ

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