The good thing about our ShopSabre CNC router is that it works with little supervision. The Copper Crown statues are being whittled from five two-inch-thick sheets of twenty-five-pound-density Precision Board. Each sheet takes five to six hours to complete. I built the routing files during the last work week and started the routing on Thursday. My goal is to have all of the pieces cut before the end of the weekend. Today, while I did yard chores and a bike ride, the machine finished the fourth sheet. Tomorrow, we’ll load a final set onto the machine and set it in motion to carve the final pieces for these four statues. On Monday, we’ll assemble the 3D jigsaw puzzle and begin the handwork. This suite is going to be epic!
Test fit the Caryatid
I’ve sometimes heard that I can be a teeny bit impatient at times but I believe I learned it from my son Peter. This morning he was very excited to assemble the first Caryatid this morning. Even though I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled and was wearing a nice clean shirt there was a bit of time to squeeze it in. The gluing went well but then Peter immediately wanted to haul the piece over to the Copper Crown for a test fit. I protested a little and suggested letting the glue dry but relented when he started to lug the heavy piece by himself. My clean shirt instantly became a work shirt. I’m happy to report that the test fit went perfectly and the Caryatid looks even more fabulous in position. I had just enough time to snap this picture before I had to rush to the house to grab a new shirt and get on my way. My annual doctor’s checkup went perfectly as well.
Sculpture number one
Peter loves Caryatids and Atlantids, draped female and male figures carved from stone and part of columns that support buildings. Four of them will be featured inside the Copper Crown. We began creating them today. Peter created the 3D mesh files of the figures, and I then converted them to routing files. To make these pieces, I sliced the computer sculptures into two-inch-thick layers and sent them to our CNC router. Our ShopSabre CNC router made quick work of carving the files. Next, I’ll glue them up, and then we’ll do a little hand work and also apply a thin coat of sculpting epoxy to make them look like ancient stone.
