As we are gearing up towards our final one important tool we need to get accustomed to is the Carvey. This week’s assignment was fairly straight forward we had to pick a noun, from the noun project website and carve it onto a wood piece using the Carvey and then post process it to spice it up.
We started our in class workshop for the Carvey by exploring the noun project for different logos, and things of that nature. I began my search with some animals. I don’t what but something gravitated me towards the chicken! I think it was because the icon had a nice and carveable outline which I thought, with some given depth would look nice being carved onto a wood piece.
Figure 1: The Chicken!
After getting that sorted out, I went ahead and uploaded my piece into easel to get ready for carving. I noticed that my piece had a lot of distinct curves and so I went with a fish-tail bit which I thought it would ensure that the curves came out correctly. And for the size of the bit, I decided on the 1/8th bit which would ensure that I get a clean cut without risking breaking a bit for accuracy’s sake but not losing out on much accuracy as well. Then the last property to pick was depth of the cut himself. I decided upon 3/8th of an inch in depth as I figured it would be deep enough for my purpose. I then chose two pieces of 2×4 that were 8 in. length from the scrap pile and carved with them.
Figure 2: Carved figure
To start my post processing I noticed that the carve still had chips around the path so I decided to sand the piece to get rid of those and to achieve an even, smooth surface. I noticed on of my pieces (since it was scrap) there was a hole where a nail used to be. To completely achieve uniformity for both of my pieces I then used wood filler to cover up the nail hole.
Figure 3: Wood Filler Magic
Figure 4: Pre and Post Sand treatment
Figure 5: Sanding!
After achieving a smooth finish I decided to add some shine to piece. I used a brush to coat the top of my piece with Polyurethane to add some luster to the piece.
Figure 6: Final Piece!
Cost Analysis
This week was very economical! Besides sanding I was mostly waiting on the Carvey to finish, so labor cost shouldn’t be much either
2″x4″x96″ at Home Depot – 2.86. Used about 16″ ~48 cents
Labor $6/hr
Total $6.86
