I was surprised to find that, as I started, I couldn’t even view the website because the hosting company had updated some software without updating all the requisites so the site didn’t even work!  Sigh…

In any case, if you’ve been one of the ones who have been checking in, I apologize for letting this languish and will try to do better in the future!!!

The map covers most of Penobscot Bay, from Owl’s Head to the mouth of the Penobscot river at Sandy Point, with Camden on the West side, Castine on the East.  You can easily make out Belfast, Camden, and Rockport Harbors, Lincolnville Beach,  Vinalhaven & North Haven, Islesboro, and Castine as well as the coastline around Searport.

Corner view of box with carved terrain map.

Opposite corner of box with terrain map.

View showing interior of box with Mahogany lining.

Top view of terrain carving of Penobscot Bay on Corian.

How could I refuse?

These were engraved and cut into 3mm Baltic Birch plywood with my CO2 laser and then sanded and finished with a clear coat of water based varnish.  I made 18 of these so that all the kids would get one.  Great fun!

Batch of 12 Valentine’s Day ‘Cards’ drying in Finishing room.

Here is this year’s line up:

Continuing the tradition of the annual collection of Ornaments:

Then, on with the gifts…

Advent Calendar, given in November. Santa moves across the board on each day of December.

Wall Art, ready to be framed.

Sign to go on my granddaughter’s playroom or bedroom door.

Two sided maze. Ball falls through to other side to continue the path to finish.

Cheeseboard to match kitchen decor.

Carved/Turned Box. Made with Corian and Cherry wood.

I made this turned Box with a Corian Carved lid.  The box is made from Zebra wood.

Carved/Turned Box with Lid On

Carved/Turned Box, side view

Carved/Turned Box, inside view

To cover prototyping and last minute additions and changes, I made over 200 blanks.  Good thing, too!  There were a few cutting mistakes, some name misspellings, some last minute additions (subtractions weren’t a problem), marriages, divorces, and even a ‘he’ becoming a ‘she’…

Here a couple of ‘random’ examples of the tags I made…

Examples of the name tags I made for Kate’s Wedding reception. The stands are made from HDPE that I machined in my workshop. The gold one is after Paul painted all the ones used at the reception. Pretty fancy!

So, I decided to make a Corian Carved top on a wood turned box as a gift for one of my sisters.

Completed Carved top box.

Magnolia Box opened.

Carving the Corian top.

Turned Cherry box showing inside and back side of carved top.

This came out so well, I had to do another!

Turned Box with Carved top

CircleFish Carved Corian top, Maple wood turned box

I purchased an NEJE Master 2S Plus 30W laser and added an Ortur Rotator:

NEJE Master 2S Plus laser with Ortur YRR Rotator attached.

While it can’t cut wood (very well) or do anything to acrylic (the light from the laser diode goes right through acrylic), it still is very useful for engraving.  The nice thing about the open frame is that I can move it to the work, rather than having to have the work fit under the laser AND it is a larger exposure area than my CO2 Laser (420mmx255mm vs 300mmx200mm).  Consequently, if I need to engrave something 6 inches thick, I can simply lift this frame over the workpiece and expose it.  A 6 inch thick piece would never fit inside my CO2 laser.

Since this laser is much lower power and a safer wavelength than the CO2 laser, the open frame doesn’t pose any serious safety issue.  I still wear protective glasses, but it’s much easier to manage.

The rotator is very flexible and with the work bench jig I made for it, I can hang the laser over the side and handle fairly large diameter objects.  In the photo above you see a wine glass on the rotator.

Since the glass is clear, it will pass the laser light through, but, with the arcylic paint I sprayed on the glass, the paint absorbs the laser light and etches the glass.  The process it pretty easy (once I tuned the technique) and here is the first useful result:

Prototype of Wine glass etched with Laser

The plan is to update our current glassware at LHV adding the logo to match some glassware our daughter gave us for Christmas.