Beginner Wookie Tiki

Machine Type:

Other Machine

Software:

Vectric Vcarve Desktop

Electronics:

OpenBuilds BlackBox

Machine Time:

3 to 4 hours-ish

Bit or Laser Size:

Roughing - 8mm end mill, Finishing - 6mm ball nose endmill and 3mm Ball nose endmill

Feeds & Speeds:

3000mm/min for all tool paths

Materials:

fence boards.

In September 2020 a huge windstorm blew over a portion of my fence and then in February of 2021 an ice storm was kind enough to provide me with more scrap fence boards that lacked a purpose.


Therefore, I planed them down, glued them up, and decided to make them into something cool (In my nerdy opinion). I have some nice large hunks of ash now too. Off topic: I wanted to remove the tree, but since it was leaning towards the neighbors house, I was scared to cut it myself. It was going to be a $3000 tree removal. It fell and barely missed his house. Interestingly, it did not fall along the direction it was leaning. The two of us got our chainsaws out and had it removed in a few hours all for the price of 20 fence boards and no tree removal permit was required. Gotta love a good ice storm.



I found a model on Thingiverse.com (Starwars bigfoot Tiki by Deltareactor3D) of a “Star Wars Bigfoot” that looked like a furry Sci Fi character (definitely not a Disney Character ) and figured I could make it much bigger and better than 3D printing. I imported it to Microsoft 3D Builder and changed the scaling ratio and upped it to 400 mm in length, but limited the Z to 60mm.

As you can see, I was really pushing it with the 60mm z height which is why I bought a High Z kit for future CNC mods.



Vcarve:
I opened the model, added tabs, and created 4 toolpaths in VCarve Desktop v11. I used rastering with the grain for both roughing and finishing passes. Blue highlighted are was a secondary finishing pass.

For roughing I used an 8mm two flute up cut because this was such a large carve.



For the main finishing pass, I used a 6mm ball nose 2 flute and for the finishing pass highlighted in blue above (mouth area), I went over it with a 3mm ball nose to get in between the teeth. For profiling I used a 6mm 2 flute.


I painted it with acrylic craft paints, sealed it with a matte spray clear coat.

Then, I diluted some black acrylic so it was basically black tinted water and washed it over the tiki to get into the low spots for "aging." I wiped the excess and, after drying, put on a couple more coats of matte clear coat.


As much as I loved how this turned out, I gave it to the IT folks at the office where it is hung in a place of prominence (which make me happy). I realized long ago, you keep your IT folks happy and all your stuff works. You keep your finance person happy, always ask for money in person, and miracles happen.