Estimate Total: $168.46

materials: $52.56

• 2 med pine 3.5″ x4″ blocks of wood
  • Homedopt $3.51 per sq ft
• Walnut MinWax water based express color wood Stain
  • Amazon $10.72 for a tube , free shipping
• Emerald MinWax water based express color wood Stain
  • Amazon $9.55 per tube , free shipping
• Mahogany Minwax Gel Stain
  • Amazon $16.98, free shipping
• Blue Acrylic Paint
  • Amazon $4.47 (16 ounces), free shipping
• 1/6″ diameter dowels about 6″ length used
  • Tower Hobbies $3.69 for 12″
• Paper towels
  • Amazon bounty $6.88 for 2 pack

Labor: $116.1

• Time:6 hours
• Average machinist pay per hour: $19.35

Process:

File processinG and settings

The image I chose was a labyrinth by AFY studio. Once I downloaded the image I had to edit it in adobe illustrator in order to connect all of the paths to create one maze. This is because most maze images are of the walls of the maze and not the paths so the carvey would have inverted the images and cut out the walls making them the path while the path itself became walls.

Upper: Original Image

Lower: SVg uploaded to easel after editing the original image

 

Once I had editied my image and ensured that the carvey would infact carve out a maze path, I cut my piece. I choose a 1/8″ upcut 2 fluted bit, and had three different depths, the smallest for the path, the second for the well in the middle of the maze and the third to cut out my part. At first I used the recommended settings on plywood but found that those were too fast and created a lot of fuzz on my piece. I thus halved the feed rate to 20in/min but found that because I used plywood, parts of my piece where still breaking off. For my piece to actually be cut properly I changed to the medium pine 3/4″ thick block, the closes material on easel to that as mahagony ( I asked a lab tech), and I kept the 20in/min settings. This worked great and I was able to cut my piece without any broken walls or excess fuzz.

Post processing

On my first try I did not cut my part out all the way because I was afraid that the bit would break if I cut too deep. Instead, I cut it out about half way then used a band saw and belt sander to remove the excess material.

The second time however I set my depth to 0.73″ so that my piece could be cut out but, having used a cnc mill before, I did not try to cut it out all the way since I knew that the piece would catch onto the bit once it was cut out and was no longer secured. This worked really well and I was able to pop the piece out of the wood.

Once I had my piece, I filed it down to get rid of any fuzz and rough edges, then I taped the maze and used mahagony stain on the back and sides of the piece. The next day, I removed the tape and used a filed dowel to apply walnut and emerald wood stains to create the look of a hedge maze, then I used acrylic paint for the well in the middle of the maze.