Hey guys! Well this video is going to be a little bit different! Every time that I use
the X-Carve I get told multiple times in the comments that "You can make anything if you
have a $2000 CNC machine." So in this video I am going to make a party serving tray. And
I am going to make it twice. I am going to make it once by hand with hand tools, using
the bandsaw and the router, and then I am going to make the second one on the X-Carve.
So I have made two versions of the plans. One is in Sketchup and that will be the one
we use for the hand made one. Not that we can really call it hand when we're using power
tools, but you get the idea. The second one I have made in Adobe Illustrator and this
will go in the X-Carve as an SVG file and we'll import that into Easel. Using the Sketchup
version I made a template out of MDF and this is what we will use to route all of the edges
and make all of the cups in the tray when we use the router to make it. And we're going
to start by making a couple of blanks and we're going to make those just like we're
making long grain cutting boards. So I'll make a big long one. I'll run it through the
planer a couple of times and get it smooth and then I'll cut in half and we'll have our
two blanks. So let's get started.
OK. So we could stop here and we'd have some really cool long grain Maple and Walnut cutting
boards. Just a little bit of finish and a little sanding and they would be beautiful.
But we're not going to stop there because we are going to turn these into serving trays.
And to do that, again we're going to make one on the X-Carve and one with hand tools.
So I am going to use this template and I am going to use fabric tape to connect it and
then I am going to use the fabric tape on the bottom to hold it to the workbench so
that I can hog it out with the router and a guide bearing. So for the CNC version I'll
do the same thing. I'll put the fabric tape on the bottom of it to hold it down the bed
of the X-Carve while it does the work.
OK. So I have the router setup with a guide bushing installed and that bushing will ride
along the edges of this template. So I've got the depth wheel setup so that I can turn
it, and every time that I turn it I will cut an eighth-inch deeper. So I can turn it plunge,
turn it plunge, and that will allow me to slowly hog out all of this material rather
than trying to do it all at once.
Alright well this project did not turn out at all like I expected. I originally went
into it thinking one thing and the exact opposite actually happened. So let's first talk about
the one that I made by hand. So this is it here. I finished it with General Finishes
Salad Bowl finish which is a food safe finish. I'll probably add a couple more coats to it
over the next couple of days and hit with some steel wool and really make it look nice.
I have roughly two hours invested in the making of this and that includes making the template
that I cut out on the scroll saw from a paper template. So I am actually kind of surprised
at how well this turned out. It's very smooth and it really turned out nice.
So what about the one that I made on the X-Carve? Well, I never finished it. And here it is.
And so let's talk about what happened. So number one, apparently the homing sequence
did not work. So the homing sequence started right here but as you can tell the entire
bowl is shifted up about a half of an inch which means it ran out of room on this end.
Now I thought; I figured that out about half-way through the carve because it was making these
one at a time. So I decided hey I am going to go ahead and let it finish because I can
go ahead and just glue on another piece of maple and then put it back on and cut out
the outside.
Well, so then... so I don't know 75 to 85 percent of the way through the cut the belt
slipped. and when that happened it was cutting the circle in the center and that shifted
the entire circle off by about 1/8 of an inch. And so I said "Well, I'm going to go ahead
and let it finish that too because I am going to run this experiment all the way to completion!"
Well... as it was cutting out some of the last cuts the DeWalt overheated. It overheated
and started smoking. The bit actually came loose and fell out of the collet and it drilled
a hole all the way through my blank and through the bed of the X-Carve. And so anyway. That
is complete junk. And not only is it complete junk I want to say one other thing. and that
is "It took the X-Carve seven and a half hours to carve this!" And that is after I originally
estimated it at thirteen hours and I went in and I doubled the feed rate thinking that
with the DeWalt and the better bit that I had purchased that it could go faster. Apparently.
BIG FAIL. Two hours beautiful. Seven and half hours junk. You decide. Can I make anything
because I have a CNC machine? See ya in the next video!