ceilng design converted re-sized and cut out

[stan kern]

found a ceiling design 30 foot diameter very detailed converted it from some difficult cad format to a *.stl file and sized it to a smalled size
and cut it out .
Did loose a lot of the detail but still is quite interesting
http://youtu.be/t7T7rTPRoQE

used 2 1/4 end mills one roughing flat 17 % stepover 80in/min feed 16K speed ,the round bottom one 8% stepover 16K 100 in/min took 47 min total
not counting the steptime of 13 min

[Bill Munroe]

Cool design, Stan. Thanks for posting.

[stan kern]

you are welcome and thanks for the compliment

[Bill Munroe]

Liked your video too. You ought to try some Sculpt Nouveau on it, I bet it would look cool in bronze.

[Keith Outten]

Nice work Stan.

I second the Sculpt Nouveau idea, I used it on a dedication plaque once and it looked great. Not one person suspects that the big plaque is made of plastic in two years.
.

[stan kern]

is that a plastic bronze colored spray,i never heard of it --but its still raw so i could

[Keith Outten]

Stan,

The bronze Sculpt Nouveau product is real bronze particles suspended in a medium so you can spray it on your project. Once it cures you can polish it the same way you would solid bronze. The company suggests that you use an inexpensive Harbor Freight spray gun to apply their products. Its a two part mixture.

I asked them how long the bronze medium would last outside in the weather and was told approximately 15 years.

They have some good videos on their web site that provide lots of information about their products. There are other companies who sell similar coatings but I have only used Sculpt Nouveau bronze.

http://www.sculptnouveau.com/

[Keith Outten]

Stan,

This isn't a good picture but its the only one I could find of this project. The color looks a bit spotty because I had just sprayed the last coat and it was drying.
I layed it on pretty thick around the letters so the buildup would make them look like they were cast and not machined. The plaque was 1/2" thick Corian.
.

[stan kern]

looks very good ,did you machine the background leaving the letters,if so how long did that take---to me that was some job

[Keith Outten]

Stan,

Yep, we machined the plaque surface down leaving the letters proud. We used a roughing bit then switched to a 1/8" bit to route the details. Both bits were flat bottom and that's about all I can remember. My best guess is that we spent about 3 to 4 hours of machining time, I never push the speed when cutting Corian because the bits will last a long time if you go slow.

This is pretty easy work and can be profitable when you bounce the prices against bronze and the time required to get one made is a fraction of the lead time for a bronze plaque.
.