Finished commanders table

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laconcepts
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Finished commanders table

Post by laconcepts »

Here is the finished table.

It came out pretty good. Its easy to criticize you own work, especially when you see certain parts that didnt go as planned. It still nice to see people come by and drool all over it though. lol.

Here are some lessons learned from our project.
1. In our case the Shopbot is sitting in a old POS temp type building on peers and wooded floor. Natural factors involved. 98 degree temps, with wood that expands and contracts much more than metal, sitting on a MDF surface, sitting on a wood floor, sitting on blocks. Dont expect to see consistent .010 machine details.
Dont surface the material one day and try to vcarve border detail the next.
It will result in surfacing and recarving.
2. Dont paint carving a solid black without metallic and coat with bartop epoxy. It will result in no visibility of the vcarving depth.
3. Sand the edges of the epoxy between coats to reduce buildup of sags.
4. Be conservative when sanding the top of sharp detail, even in aluminum....uugh

Now after learning from our mistakes I can say once again..
I LOVE SOME V-CARVING AND ASPIRE!!!

Kelly
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The kool thing about thleggs is that they dont loo gatlin gun barrels0
The kool thing about thleggs is that they dont loo gatlin gun barrels0
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esteeme1
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by esteeme1 »

Kelly,

From design to implementation AWESOME!!! I think the black paint and the effect of not seeing the V-carve look outstanding. It's not a relevant error in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.
Jim Darlas
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BOOMER52
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by BOOMER52 »

WOW... absolutely STELLAR...!!!

BOOMER52

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mtylerfl
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by mtylerfl »

Kelly,

That's a great outcome you can be very proud of! Thank you for sharing the photos and listing your tips.
Michael Tyler

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laconcepts
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by laconcepts »

Thank you all very much. It was a bit frustating seeing the depth of the vcarving disappear like that. Any other time I would spray another color on but with bartop epoxy you are difinatle committed.

Kelly
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Mick Martin
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by Mick Martin »

Really nice ...... great finish, a job to be proud of.

Mick
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PaulRowntree
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by PaulRowntree »

Kelly, that is a beautiful finish.

Just to be clear ... If you had used a black with metallic flakes, would the bartop epoxy have been a good topcoat, showing off the V-carving?

Cheers!
Paul Rowntree
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bill_w
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by bill_w »

Really nice work, very nice and thanks for the
lessons learned from your project.
Computers-Yuk....I should junk it...It never does what it should do...only what I tell it.

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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by tabeyer »

Very nice, good job.

laconcepts
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by laconcepts »

Thank you all once again.

Paul, that is correct on the metalflake.
I know this because we did a sample carving on a piece of scrap cypress testing borders that we might want on the table. After that we thought it would be perfect to test the epoxy on. We hand the rustoleum black diamond metallic for the table frame, (kind of a gun metal look)(also looks great on A10 gun barrel legs), so we decided to try that. It looked good but we thought a solid color would look better.
WRONG ANSWER!!. With the metallic you could see the depth clearly. (I think the metal flake reflects the light of each other or something like that)You just have to be careful about laying it on too heavy. The metal flake can settle in the low areas and is noticable. That is fine but you have to be careful and consistent with such a larger border. If you can tell, the lighter colors used in center piece show the carving very well. We have to build one more of these and will be experimenting with the metallic vs lighter colors that might go with the wood. Maybe some browns, Tans etc... Any suggestions anyone?
I hope that helps some,
Kelly
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COWBOY1296
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by COWBOY1296 »

absolutely beautiful. I have never worked with epoxy before but have some being shipped to me right now. i understand the dept of epoxy in the v-carve, but just how deep was it on the table top? with the v carved filled in like that there is no cleaning of the dust it can capture.

i have looked up every tutorial i can find on epoxy, so i am all ears if you have any suggestions.

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zeeway
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by zeeway »

Awesome work.

Angie

laconcepts
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by laconcepts »

Thank you very much for the comments!!

Cowboy.. I can tell you it is certainly nerve racking with you decide to pour some nice thick goo over the top of something that you just spent lots of time and energy on!!
I am like you I spent alot of time watching any youtube or other video that I could find.
One thing that I will suggest is this.... Carve you some sample piece like we did. The Louisiana Boots around the edge were a perfect sample. We copied a section into about a 10X10' piece of scrap, carved several lines of the Laboots and other border ideas, painted, sanded and pour epoxy over it.. I had a good bit more confidence after that.
In some videos I saw a lady that had two chairs on either side of her project with a sheet over it to keep down dust. I kept thinking that it will really be bad if I come in the next day and see that sheet part of the new table top.. LOL!
So my friend Ron that worked with me on these bent up some 2-1/2' wide strips of aluminum sheet metal into some triangles (you could use anything) and we placed them around the four sides and layed a piece of sheetmetal over the whole thing resting on the triangles (teepees) to keep out dust.. We kept it a couple inches above the part. Just go slow when you take it on and off while its wet so that you dont bump or drop anything into it. Also find yourself a nice clean area.
You will need a propane torch to pass just above the epoxy to remove the air bubbles. Anything you inlay can trap air underneath and will eventually come to the top. You will need to be near the part for about 45 min or so. Have you some paper or plastic on the floor around it, some nitril gloves and a squeegee to spread it around with. It is self leveling but you need to push it where you want it.
We had 3 pours on the first table and 4 on the second and they were about 3/16" if i had to guess on the flat areas.
Beleive it or not we poured two sample pieces and two of these table tops with one gallon of epoxy and still had a little left over.


I hope that helps some. If you have any more questions, please dont hesitate to ask.
Kelly
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Bob Reda
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by Bob Reda »

Kelly,
That is an awesome table. Did you ever try mixing some one shot with the bar top epoxy to fill the vcarve areas? I do this quite often and after sanding looks like an inlay. works pretty good.

Bob

laconcepts
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Re: Finished commanders table

Post by laconcepts »

Thank you very much Bob.
I havent heard of One Shot but I will look it up. Ron (a friend here at Barksdale that I work with)and i had talked about experimenting with some Resin that we have on Base (Air force) and mix in some dye or Paint mixing base and see what happens. On this project I was disappointed that the black paint that we sprayed into the carving actually looked like it was an inlay. I really wanted to see the the depth of the carving and when we poured the epoxy over the solid black paint it looked like it was either inlayed or had a sticker under it.. I was really disappointed.
On the second table we used a metallic black paint and that worked out perfectly. You could still see the the full depth of the carving. That is because the metallic in the paint reflects the light and different angles.
We do want to do some resin inlay and some Vcarve inlay but just havent found the right project yet. Ron and I both really like to see the detail that VCarving creates from such simple toolpath.
If you have a source or a link that you could share i sure would like to check it out. Can you post some pics of work with One shot?. Maybe some before, during and after shots?

Thanks again Bob
Kelly
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