cribbage players

I enjoy playing cribbage!

it is a fun game, perfect for long cold winters and nights at deer camp!

Flat rate boxes! 


Also maybe some items for the special inspector in your lives. 

all too small for that board, it is almost 19" long!

They come bigger, just cost more 

there in lies the problem!  shipping sucks!

Over the weekend I purchased a big 'set' of 3D dog heads along with plaques you can combine them with.  Heads average about 6" in the biggest XY direction.  I scaled them down to 2" in the biggest and nested them inside a 2.8" shallow dome and am working on cutting them out as display samples.  16 heads to a 12"x12" piece of wood.  54 heads to cut, so there will be 3 full boards of 16 heads and a 4th with the last 6 heads and a full scale head as well to show the fine details.  here is the 1st panel of 16 heads (still part of a long board and still clamped on the machine):

here are 3 full size dog heads I did for people here at work, I have a 4th done but no picture of it.  rounds are roughly 10.375" and the heart is roughly 10"x10"

You are not helping me not look at the CNC router listed on marketplace for $1300 with everything for a turn-key operation... 

go for it, if you are interested in that kind of work.  BUT, keep in mind, a small one will be too small as soon as you get it setup at your house!  There are bigger ones than the one I got.  I got the biggest one they made (at the time) 25"x50"x7".  They now have one that is 50"x50"x7", BUT, it doesn't have a table of any kind, so you have to fab up a table that is 'flat enough' and mount the hardware to it.  Mine, all I had to do was put the bridge on it and tighten 12 screws (6 each side) then tram the spindle in (and plug in the wires).  I've almost sold enough to have paid for the machine you mention, not including the cost of the wood used, and I am not even doing it 'professionally' yet.

Very true. It's a 33x33 with a Z axis (and an unused upgraded Z axis kit) with a tool setter. 
It would be fun, and with the low entry fee of $10 a weekend at the local farmers market, I'm sure my adorable children could sell enough witty signs to pay for it eventually.  (after using them for child labor to feed the machine in the first place of course) 

that's a decent size XY, but what is the Z travel?  at that price and size, I would be a little worried about the stiffness of the machine for 'heavy' cuts.

the place company I bought from has a 'starter' unit that is 12x13x4 travel, with control software (you supply router & bits) for $800.  and, if and when you decide you want bigger, they will give you something (not sure how much) to trade it in on a bigger one, then they re-firb it and donate it to a school somewhere.

that's a decent size XY, but what is the Z travel?  at that price and size, I would be a little worried about the stiffness of the machine for 'heavy' cuts.

the place company I bought from has a 'starter' unit that is 12x13x4 travel, with control software (you supply router & bits) for $800.  and, if and when you decide you want bigger, they will give you something (not sure how much) to trade it in on a bigger one, then they re-firb it and donate it to a school somewhere.

I was thinking the same thing. Have not looked at any reviews for it, probably won't make it past my "accounting department" anyways...

Looks fine for... engraving and maybe some lite carving, and stuff... The one I'm looking at has the ball screw Z axis already. Definitely a light duty machine. 

shapeoko, 33x33 shows 4" in Z travel.  good enough for most things, but to me, that is short.  It uses belts to drive and uses rollers (wheels) to move X&Y.  mine has bearings in X & Z and drive screws.  the Y axis has a drive screw as well, but the bearings are different, solid metal rods and bushings for for the travel.  I had looked at Shopbot first when I started looking at these things, and they looked good.  BUT, the Shopbot were smaller ad more $$$ while appearing to use all the same drive/bearing mechanism.  The nice thing about having that 7" in Z travel is I can get 4th axis units to mount to mine, turn it into a CNC lathe.  I don't have that, probably won't get it, but I do have a 7w laser for it that chucks up into the spindle, so as long as I don't bend the laser mount, it lines up with any bit I might use.  You can also get a SCANNING probe for mine, uses Renishaw (or knock off) probes for scanning.  I also have a 3hp water cooled spindle, and let me tell you, night & day compared to a router.  When the spindle starts up, it is whisper quiet, it only gets loud when actually cutting.

made three 3D flags over the weekend.  first one I screwed up, my Z origin was the top of the stock.  well, after I did the rough cut, there was no 'top' any more, so I picked up on the table, then FORGOT to comp up for the nominal stock thickness, so the finish bit plowed into the piece.  You can see the plow in the bottom-right cover of the big flag in the back.  I then cut a small one, WITHOUT screwing up the pickup.  After that, I made another big one, but not quite as big as the first one.  1x12 stock isn't perfect, so I scaled it down enough so I could cut all the way around to a nice cleanup.  The good big one isn't in the picture.  The big one is 11.25+ tall (due to stock variation), the little one is 10.25" wide.

The term is "apprentice mark" 

good call, but at 60++ I'm hardly an apprentice.  Amazing in that it didn't snap the bit, it was a 1/16" taper ball nose bit and it got at least 3/8" deep before I hit the STOP button (going at 50 inches/minute speed).  I hit cycle start, I saw it didn't go as high as it should, saw it start it's dive to go into the part, and I just failed to react properly.  Yeah, my fault, my fault twice for failing to offset the stock thickness and my fault for not reacting like I should have.  My wood dye is getting delivered either today or tomorrow, so I'll use that one for testing out how the dye works, as in how fast, how deep, how dark, etc.  NOT stain, actually wood dye powder.  Can be mixed with either water or alcohol, then applied.  I'm thinking alcohol as it will dry a lot faster.

dye was delivered last night.  tiny TINY little package of powder makes a quart of dye (I used water).  tested it on the fubar and it does color very well, and at least the way I did it, it didn't penetrate deeply, so, I will try it out this weekend on a new small flag.  rough cut the entire flag, then finish just the field, and dye it.  Then finish just the red strips and dye.  then finish the white strips and put in the stars.  It will be an interesting experiment.

rough cut entire flag (+0.020 stock)

finish cut field, dye blue

finish cut red stripes, dye red

finish cut white stripes & stars, then cut out.

light power wheel sand w/ drill

That looks good! It's almost summer, the street fair is calling your name! Assuming you live near a place that has street fairs? County fair maybe? Farmers market?

there is a farmers market about 150 yards from my house, every Thursday, from the end of May to the end of August.  It's not a big one, and IMO a little too costly ($15 for a 4 hour market).  BUT, my house is right on a corner that a lot of people have to go past to get to the market, so I am planning on getting a banner printed that I will 'wrap' around the corner, and will set up a tarp & table right there.  Should work almost as well as being at the market, and it's FREE!  I also plan on being a corner seller on the weekends all summer as well.  It's a nice, HONEST, community, so I won't even have to sit out there all day either.

that one is 10.25"x5.4", I figure $25 for it, it takes just over 2 hours to cut.

Thats pretty sweet, love the small-town vibes! I moved from a small down I grew up in, to a smaller town nearby when it got too big, then when that smaller town had 500 houses built down the road, we moved across the country to a town with maybe 600 people. I might have to drive an hour to work and 25 minutes to the nearest Walmart, but at least it's quiet and peaceful, and has a delightful farmers market. 

$25 might be low, but if you can cut a few while you sleep then pretty alright.