Roughouts

[MelNM]

I was thinking of doing some roughouts done of my carvings to save me some time on carvings. I was wondering what they generally charge and most important, does it cause any damage to the original?
Mel

[Goody]

Mel,
Before I built my own duplicator I researched and even had some of my Santas roughed out. It was running between $5 and $15 per blank. The original has to be held in the machine to be followed. A hole will need to be drilled or something glued to the piece that is going to be used as a pattern.
If its like most machines a follower is going to have to ride up against the pattern and it will leave marks on the piece. Be aware that unless you tell the duplicator service that this is your pattern exclusivly your piece could show up somewhere. Most services are reputable, I was trying to save a few bucks and found one that was not. Too bad you are on the other side of the country. You could spend a day at the shop and run your own.
Goody

[MelNM]

How much did it cost you to build yours Goody? Was it your own design? I guess I'll wait to do another Santa like the one I am working on to get it roughed out. Do you know any reputable companies out there that will do it?

[Mitchell]

Look at this website:

http://www.carvingsolutions.com/

If you are interested, call Jimmy at Carving Solutions....he can answer your questions. You may even get lucky and he will see this thread (and reply) - he's a member here. He's a good carver too - got a fourth place in Dollywood this year. He is "JimmyB" on this site.

[Goody]

Originally Posted by MelNM

How much did it cost you to build yours Goody? Was it your own design? I guess I'll wait to do another Santa like the one I am working on to get it roughed out. Do you know any reputable companies out there that will do it?

I have about $2000 in materials. Some of it not on the machine yet as The second phase of the machine is to semi automate it. I have some stepper motors and drives I need to set up and experiment with just don't have the time to shut it down long enough to do the changes. I figure maybe after Christmas. I did all the welding and traded labor for the machine shop so I don't really know what labor costs would be to build it. The price of steel has doubled since I built this machine. Heres a post I did A while back ago about the machine
http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/t6227.html
Goody