Christmas & Holiday ideas

[Martin Boekers]

Christmas and the holidays are not that far away so I though I'd toss this out.

Olive wood is really amazing in it's texturing. It makes for great ornaments
and gifts.

I have been buying stock from Bethlehem Olive wood for awhile and turning pens with it. Through the years they have added other products in their line, sheet stock, rounds etc. Great for lasering. Being that the wood comes from the birthplace of Jesus is a great feature for the holiday season. Also the wood is only harvested from off-fall and trimings so trees are not damaged in the harvesting.

I have a hard time keeping up with making pens through the holidays, with the sheets, rounds and smaller magnet size pieces I thought some here may be interested. It does take a couple weeks to ship to the USA but they have a pretty good system set-up for this.

http://www.bethlehemolivewood.net/


Marty

[Steve Clarkson]

Marty.....how much do they charge for a sheet of 1/8" Olive Wood? Their website says you have to order $250 minimum.......not sure if I would want THAT much.......got any you want to sell with the stickers of authenticity?

[Martin Boekers]

Steve, That may be for reseller pricing.

my typicall orders are $50 - $100.

here is the page for sheets, being the nature of this wood
sheet sizes are varied and mixed. you should be able to get a fair amount of cut outs though.

There websight isn't the easiest to navigate. Shipping isn't too bad it's more the time frame for me.


http://www.bethlehemolivewood.net/Bags.htm

Marty

[Dee Gallo]

Marty,

That stuff makes great cutting boards, but it's pretty narrow - did you ever edge glue it?

:) dee

[Steve Clarkson]

Wow....shipping is as much as the product itself! It looks like one pound is almost equivalent to a 12"x24" sheet. I may have to try some.

[Martin Boekers]

Dee,

no I haven't, The workers there are very helpful with the products they sell. They may be able to help with questions.

It is a very hard wood, not the easiest to turn. I have glued pieces back together on ones that hung up and split while turning with CA glue and that worked fine for the pens.

I haven't worked with the sheeting much mostly pen blanks. This has really been a busy year for me and haven't had as much time to experiment with (OK play;)) as much new media and products as I would like.

I made some of these last year (not like these but the same idea)

They came out real nice and the people I gave theme too loved them.

Mine I cut out snow flake and christmas scenes out of wood instead of etching glass.

I think an item like this might be right up your alley;)

http://beautifulnightlights.com/?cat=23


Marty

[Martin Boekers]

They seem to give a fair amount in a pound. Coming from Israel I don't think the price is too bad.

As I said earlier the wood is nice and part of the sales is linking it to it's homeland the Christmas.


Marty

[Dee Gallo]

Marty,

Those beautiful night lights are beautiful indeed!

Check your PM box for a question from me, :) dee

[Bill Cunningham]

A few years ago, I did a couple of hundred olivewood mixing spoons as wedding favors for a Italian wedding.. Olive wood does engrave very nicely..

[AL Ursich]

WOW... Nice Websites, GREAT WOOD.... Great Ideas....

I bought some 1/4 inch Birch today at the big BOX.... bought some Glitter Paper and Gloss paper at Wally Mart in 12 x 12 format.... Got some spray glue and will try to CNC them after applying paper to both sides...

Looking for a Rocking Horse outline...:rolleyes: My 20 watt will dress them up but not cut them...

Discovered the JOY of Key Fobs... The Gravity Railroad.... Birthplace of America's Railroads, first train.

I have even been there to the Bethlehem Holy Land in my Navy Days in the Med a few times.:cool:

AL

[Bill Cunningham]

Google images has tons of rocking horse outlines, you can trace them with corel trace
http://images.google.ca/images?q=rockinghorse&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&ei=OIzOSrnyCMjulQfXu6GpCg&gbv=2#start=0&imgtype=lineart

[AL Ursich]

Thanks, found a bunch but not one I liked yet... I will find one.

Thanks,

AL

[Guy Mathews]

Al,

When you find something you like, even if it is a photo and not line art, I can convert it to vectors real quick for you. If you need them cut out, stop up to the shop with the birch and I can throw it on the CAMaster or the Shopbot for you and cut them out.

Guy

[Steve Clarkson]

Al,

When you find something you like, even if it is a photo and not line art, I can convert it to vectors real quick for you.


Guy......do you have a secret vector converting program that you'd like to share with us?

[Guy Mathews]

Steve

Secret?

Nope, just lots of software and I have taught myself how to import and export into and out of all of them to achieve the results I need because of the constant deadlines that I always seem to get thrust upon me!!!!

I use this phrase a lot in CNC threads. "There is no magic button."

To add to that, I will say that I have figured out which buttons and in which software to press and when to press them to make it seem like there is a magic button.

Don't get me wrong Steve, some of the stuff that I do takes a while, and then there are things that when I tell people how long it takes me they can't or will not believe me.

For example, there are many variations of carved fluted legs for furniture that I make because every designer that comes through our shop wants a custom leg based on their design. About a year ago, I stopped saving the files for these types of legs for my CNC machines. It is actually faster for me to recreate their design in a CAD Program as a 3D model then it is for me to find the same design from 2 years ago.

Even with our library of CAD files, the designer names change or they do not number the same as us, so I am forced to search for their previous order. I finally realized that it was just faster to redo the design then try to find it.

No secrets. Just lots of trial and error over the last few years and a very good memory for extreme short cuts. I still have a lot to learn especially when it comes to the laser end of CAIR, Computer Aided Industrial Revolution, (my term for this Industrial Revolution that we are currently in.)

Also Al lives about 15 miles down the road from me and about 20 miles from my job. Country roads with no traffic!!!!!!

Guy

PS. I still want a laser for Christmas mommy!

[AL Ursich]

Thanks Guy,

Did some Angel's and Stars with the CW and the 1/16 inch cut out bit. Was dissapointed.... a 4 inch angel didn't come out very well, the 1/16 inch bit was still too big for the size and detail... Really need to Laser them....

I am Lasering "Milford, PA Pocono Mountains" on a bunch of small wine racks for a 2 day show in the morning. With only 20 watts I am limited.

Thanks for the Vector offer and shop time visit.

I still need to replace a mirror in my Laser.... It loose power down the page about 6 inches.... I am using a old B&W Photo Lab trick to get the lower text deeper..... "Dodging".... I am covering the good text with a piece of white Sheet metal and repeating the job. At Midnight you just make it work.... Wasted too much time trying to cut 1/8 inch plywood with the CW.

I need a real laser... :)

Thanks,

AL

[AL Ursich]

Day one of the show was a poor showing.... Lets see what tomorrow brings.

I was privileged to get a tour of Guy's Shop and now with 4 CarveWrights I might be able to let him play with a hobby machine in his fun time.... Taking what he knows and fast tracking ideas for a 4th Axis for the CW down the line. At this point I believe it would be easy to make a manually indexed sled.

The CW does make some pretty cool 2 D Christmas Ornaments.

AL