Picture: Basket-ball

[Nick Silva]

This is a picture of a hollow sphere which I engraved with a basket weave pattern

[Keith Outten]

Geez Nick the basket weave engraving is just awesome. I've got to get my lathe turning skills up to speed so I can make a few of these.

What is the diameter of the bowl?

Nick is a new member here at SawMill Creek, for those of you who don't know him he is a wood turner who happens to own a laser engraver.

[Bruce Page]

Nick,
Your previous two vessels were very nice but your basket-ball is awesome! I’m curious how you were able to get the weave all the way around. Did you mount the piece horizontally and rotate it manually, each time picking up from the previous end point, or did you use a rotary table that’s driven by the computer?

I could have a ball with a machine like that!


He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless dead.

[Bobby Hatfield]

This is a picture of a hollow sphere which I engraved with a basket weave pattern

Watch out they ain't no hooded cobra snake come up outa that hole in the top. You can just imagine a bearded flute playing turban wearing snake charmer playing over that basket.
Nick, thats one beautiful round snake box. Looks like price should be about $3000.

[Tom Sweeney]

That's for all three of your amazing turnings Nick,

Welcome to SMC & thanks for showing your wonderful work.

[Jim Becker]

That piece is both outstanding and astounding! Thanks for posting your wonderful work, Nick... :)

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Simply Awesome work Nick! Very nice and interesting blend of Turning and Engraving. All 3 examples of your work are inspiring, to say the least. Welcome to Sawmill Creek, and thanks so much for sharing your excellent work with us. OUTSTANDING! :)

[Terry Quiram]

All three pieces are wonderful, this one in particlar. How big is your laser? What was the run time for this part? What is the size of the bowl?

Terry

[Nick Silva]

Geez Nick the basket weave engraving is just awesome. I've got to get my lathe turning skills up to speed so I can make a few of these.
What is the diameter of the bowl?


Thanks Keith,
It is about 6 inches at the widest point. The hole is about 2 inches.
These are really fun to make. I'll be making a few more in the future.
This one just sold.

[Nick Silva]

Nick,
Your previous two vessels were very nice but your basket-ball is awesome! I’m curious how you were able to get the weave all the way around. Did you mount the piece horizontally and rotate it manually, each time picking up from the previous end point, or did you use a rotary table that’s driven by the computer?


Thanks for the kind words. It was mounted on the rotary fixture.
You layout the basketweave as a block (longer than needed). This is done in corel draw which has a postscript fill for a basketweave. You can change the angle or the density of the weave. Then you just print. You have to be quick with the fingers and watch where the end just reaches the starting point and hit the off switch to prevent any overlap.

The curve is not that steep so I wasn't to concerned with it stretching if it loses focus. peace.

[Nick Silva]

All three pieces are wonderful, this one in particlar. How big is your laser? What was the run time for this part? What is the size of the bowl?
Terry

Mine is a Universal Laser Systems M300 model 45 watt. you can see what it looks like at www.ulsinc.com. Not very portable. I have the rotary fixture and the honeycomb table accessories to go with it. The ball itself was about 6" diameter.

When determining how long it will take, it really depends on whether you've laid out a vector drawing or a raster (bitmap) drawing. Vectors are generally used for cutting through and are very fast. Otherwise, if it is a raster it has to do a LOT of passes to fill in an area. This particular drawing was a postscript fill so that translates to a raster drawing. Its not that large (say 5 inches wide by 17 inches long). It was probably run at about 50% speed, so I'd say it took about 10-15 minutes from start to finish. It probably took me longer than that just to set it up.
Cheers!

[Nick Silva]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome and the kind words.
-Nick