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So awesome, so so so, so Awesome. Thank you so much that is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time…dam I didn’t plan that pun but I am keeping it now!
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I’m working on a novel of a post with my shakedown after having run the ice. Suffice it to say, the MPCNC is a VERY capable ice mill and I’m going to exhaust the uses of it. Once I get the drop table cutout of the table there will be much more experimentation going on. Oh, and the 1/8" collet is stuck in the DW (from a 3d basswood carve I did Friday)…I need to get that out so I can chuck up the 1/4" bits…the long ones. I’m kinda glad I was limited to the 1/8" bits with a shortened cutter length. I had messed up the CAM and was going for a 30mm cut depth only to realize that the cutters on my bit only went up like 18mm! It skipped like crazy because the smooth shaft couldn’t cut the ice (obviously). That’s only because my DOC was 30mm - which I can TOTALLY get away with…IF I have 30mm of flute to work with. Hahaha
More on that coming in the novel…
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Any Facebook users can dig through my history - just find PowerCarver and ColdCreative.ca. Imagine all the things in there that maybe one day I’ll be doing with the MPCNC!
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I’m not sure this qualifies as “I built it” since this is someone else’s STL but this is the culprit that plugged the 1/8” collet in the DW…took ten hours to mill - 5 hours each pass. I used the 1/8 flat for the roughing and the 1/8 round for the finish. Both done with waterline paths, both using rectangular mask - in hindsight I only needed he roughing pass to clear the background. I ran once without the rectangular mask and the gantry got hung up once the carve got too deep. Had to start over after four hours. Looking forward to longer bits…
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Ice carvings look best at night when backlit. Ice logos however look best during daylight.
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I have sent the previous pic to everyone…I can’t wait to send this one!
That is so amazing! 
So I’m building up a control panel/enclosure for the laser MPCNC’s electronics and stuff. Had the table saw out for the framework pieces and carried on the old fashioned way with the jigsaw and a drill for the LCD cutouts.
And then I gave my head a shake and jumped into Illustrator/ESTLCam. Hahaha[attachment file=85800]
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Ice carving season is officially over so before I pack this bad boy away I wanted to share. In the olden days we used to draw and drill all of these by hand. With the MPCNC it’s SOOOOO MUCH EASIER! I was even able to cut away a bit of the side panels to get more screws closer to the edges of the tool.
We use these for flattening ice surfaces which are to be joined together. It’s probably one of the most indispensable tools we use next to the chainsaws and chisels. We couldn’t build big ice carvings without it. My old one was amazingly smooth but the gangnail was so short and dense that the board would always plug up with super fine snow and render itself useless. After a full season with this MPCNC nailboard I didn’t have a single clog. AND it’s pretty light compared to the gangnail board…less fatigue. AND it’s way more aggressive when you want it to be yet a steady hand and it’s fine as can be. Making three more. Two for the guy I carve with and one more for me (I’m going to try one with drywall screws…more aggressive but less durable).
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You have all the cool toys…
Come on, get it, Ice humor…
Ice carving requires some wicked looking instruments and tools. I love it.
That’s pretty cool, and it’s nice you can quickly add to the quantity once you have the process.
So what does your favorite carve from the season look like? Are you allowed to share pics?
Oh, man. Mending plates. I don’t know how many pairs of gloves I ruined with those things. Worked building roof trusses for a summer in FBKS. We had hydraulic presses to squish the plates into the 2X boards. Once the jigs were set, we could knock out a truss in a few minutes. After a bunch of leather gloves, I tried a pair of those stainless steel infused fillet gloves. They lasted the longest, but still wore though in a couple weeks. After that I just used shoe goo to rebuild the fingertips. One of the old guys that worked there didn’t wear gloves at all.
Those were the best ones - the ones straight from the truss manufacturers. The plates you get at Home Depot seem to be made of lower grade metal and dull immediately. That other one I used for almost 20 years and it STILL terrifies me the most. I have caught myself on it so many times it’s ridiculous. And my jackets and pants. Wicked sharp.
This year we added this one to what will be repeated many times. It’s was gorgeous. Over eight feet tall.
Dig me up on facebook/coldcreative.ca you can see the whole winter worth of effort. Tell me what YOUR favorite is![attachment file=92879]
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That dream catcher is really cool. Nice work.
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I kind of want to sit on the couch until it molds to me and then scan it and carve a chair with the perfect fit out of wood.
Hahaha. That’d be sweet. I wonder if it’d still hurt if you sat too long to in a perfectly molded chair. Of course you would be able to feel it…your ass would be gone from the frostbite you suffered from the original molding process on the ice. As inviting as they look to sit on, the cold gets right through you…no matter how fancy your snow pants are.
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Hey Kelly, so I just happen to be flipping thru last Friday’s town new paper and guess who I see on page 12?
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I wanna see! Is Kelly famous?