Greg Lehman

Creativity and art have always been a big part of my life, I went to school in 1985 for Graphic Arts, I was in the printing industry for about 10 years working as a litho stripper. As well as this I am a tattoo artist of 30 years. Well, actually 29 years, I started tattooing in 1989 this is also something I really love doing.

Discovering CNC was out of necessity I love building stuff and after a bit of research a CNC mill is what I needed. I bought my first Sheline Manual Mill in 2001. I did many upgrades on the mill to make it CNC. And that is the mill I use today. The max size I can do is about 7.5” x 14, I customized the machine with new lead screws and extended the arm. I do have a mini Taig lathe too, which is a manual lathe along with many of the “classic” hand tools such as planers, chop saws and sanders.In terms of software, I’ve been a long-time user of Vectric products… even before Aspire was even invented. I use vcarve Pro 8.5 but I will definitely be upgrading soon. I think it’s the ease of use of the actual software that has kept me with Vectric software; that and the fact if I do need help with something they’ve got a whole heap of great videos and info freely available.

It’s great to see that Vectric software enables Greg to be creative without any boundaries and constraints. So, with all of his equipment in his workshop I think its time to hear about the project that caught our eye. We started by asking Greg what is the background to the project…

You see many Smart cars on the road these days and I wanted to make mine more of an original looking car. I wanted it to look like a rusty old Rat-Rod, and it was a necessity to have a wind-up key in the back of the car to make it look like a toy, so this is where the ideas began.Well, the designing stage was the longest… as for time wise…guessing a few days to design and few days to cut out. Seeing my machine is very small…my max I can cut is 7.25” x 14” which meant I had to work within these limitations. For the materials I used PVC pipe, acrylic and copper and brass plates with the addition of some brass screws too. To power the key, I used a 12volt 30rpm motor. Tooling, I used a tapered 1/8 ballnose, 60 degree v-bit, 90 degree v-bit and 1/4” endmill.

When it came to using the software there were so many features that helped me along the way. But, I do have to say the feature that helped the most was being able to see the toolpaths vcarve Pro generated. Then after that being able to see a very detailed simulation of what the final cut project would look like before I get to the machine. This helped me keep to my motto and top tip – “Measure twice, cut once”.Das war tatsächlich mein zweiter Versuch, einen Aufziehschlüssel für mein Auto zu bauen. Mein erster Versuch war ein Magnet, der am Auto befestigt wurde und Batterien benötigte – der war aber viel zu schwer, um zu halten. Den ersten Prototyp habe ich größtenteils im 3D-Druckverfahren hergestellt und mich für 12 Volt entschieden, um auf Batterien verzichten zu können. Trotzdem plane ich, diesen hier mit einem Ganzmetallsockel anstelle des Holzsockels zu verbessern.

Greg hat nicht nur mit der Projektidee, sondern auch mit dem Design und der Umsetzung trotz der Hardwarebeschränkungen große Kreativität bewiesen. Das zeigt, dass es immer einen Weg gibt, seine Wünsche zu verwirklichen. An dieser Stelle möchten wir Greg herzlich danken, dass er sich trotz seines vollen Terminkalenders die Zeit genommen hat, die Vectric-Community zu inspirieren und seine Geschichte mit ihr zu teilen. Bevor wir ihn gehen ließen, mussten wir ihn fragen, was er für die Zukunft geplant hatte.…

Es gibt zu viel, um es aufzuzählen. Eines der Dinge, an denen ich arbeite, betrifft einen Kanaldeckel,… aber das ist streng geheim.