fancy mikado?

fancy mikado?

Here is the result so far of a really fun collaboration; a bunch of front and back legs that will turn into four poster beds. It started out as a wild idea between me and a dear miniature friend from the other side of the globe. What if we could combine his milling skills with my hand carving??? We came up with a design that would incorporate both and have an overall elegant feel to the finished bed.

first mock-up drawing

The milling took place with the aid of a CNC mill, and for that he had to draw up the design in a CAD program (computer aided design). That program then translated the dimensions and shape of legs the to CAM software that generated the commands (or G-code) to control the milling machine. Do you still follow? I know I was confused too at first ...

detail of CAD drawing

Here's a detail of the some of the many drawing that he'd made before final milling. It might you think at this stage; "Hey! That is easy, anyone can make a miniature this way". But believe me, it not as straight forward as you might think.

Besides this stage there is still loads of (manual) construction work afterwards to do. I just look at it as just another power tool, something each of us probably use every now and then. Maybe not as high-end but still a tool that doesn't work without human input. In this case one still has to come up with a design and be able to draw. Mastering the (drawing) software to drive the mill is just as challenging as mastering the potential of a table saw or a drill press and make that work for you. As this was his first project on a CNC mill I'm very proud of the steep learning curve he's undergone ever since. 

a set of legs

test pieces for shape, color and finish

Because the milling was quite a challenge at times, being long and thin and with the fragile finials at the top. I think his results so far are just amazing! After that I added even more details by carving the acanthus leaves with the aid of his milling. As you can see we used small strategically placed indicating cuts that helped me place the 4 leaves equally around the circumference. They were an enormous aid as i could focus completely on the carving and not have any worries bout spacing. 

the carved centers

It will be a while till completion, but already it's been great fun to work on. Although i must confess carving over 20 legs was a teeny weeny bit tedious, i look back upon it as a great way to get practice, practice and even more practice. On to the next stage, the head and foot boards!

detail of a test piece

To be continued...