The Big Move

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    here we have our long time friend Noel Dydo, in 2005, with  

  our brand new mullticam CNC and another friend's Lull. 

 at the time, Noel was quick to describe that Lull as a 'piece of sh**'.

not comforting at the moment, as the cnc had to go up a couple 

of floors and fit through a hole in the wall 

between two windows ...

click the pictures to enlarge them ... 

   back in the day, that's 'Mr. Lucky' there with the sawzall.

when we put the wall back together after getting the cnc in, 

we realized that someday it would have to come back out so 

we put everything back together with stainless steel screws.

a lucky good decision!

since things don't last forever, we decided that since Kristian 

had a rented 'Skyjack' lift at his house site a mile up the road, now

would be a very good time to make the move to the empty shop and

give will some more room in the upstairs of the main shop.

out it comes!

 after a short trip across the driveway, Kristian maneuvered

it through the doors, onto machine skates and to it's new home ...

all set now ... we are going to hook up the dust collection

today, pipe that up, and we'll be good to go ...

 

the next day, the pieces went back and you'd

 never know anything had happened ... 

CNC Work

 

OK ... not every furniture maker has or needs a CNC, but we

bought one back in 2005 after working with a local signmaker

who helped us with some very tricky inlays while reproducing

a pair of federal era card tables for a special client ...

it must have taken forever to build a couple of those tables

by hand back in the 1800s.

the link above takes you to a discussion of

handwork vs machine work, and does it matter? 

  

what i have found is that a cnc allows you to confidently

create designs that very few clients would pay you to do by hand.

so many things are possible ...

Will's banjo inlays, 

mother of pearl, abalone, steel ... here's a slideshow link to

'stuff you can do with a cnc'  about 150 photos there

that, literally, barely scratches the surface of what is possible

some background ...

here's ours ... a 2005 multicam 1000, 50 x 100 work surface.

it has held up well, and still holds tight tolerances for

inlays where the difference between the size of the pocket

and the size of the inlay piece is measured in thousandths.

 it handles bits from 1/64th of an inch to up 2.5" diameter for surfacing

  it was quite a project getting it to the second floor, but luckily

we put everything back together with stainless steel screws in case 

we decide to move it (likely) to a different building next year.

straight bits, pointed bits, round nose bits, big bits, little bits ...
two of our favorite cnc projects below ...

 the duck bed

 

and..

  The Crow Bar