Bigger Mt Whitney CNC

Starting work on the scaled up Whitney cnc cut. This one will be twice as big in every dimension, at 6x10.5x3in, and will take four layers of 3/4in plywood

First step is to make a new jig to hold the bigger stock. The jig is pinned to the bed, both for repeatable placement and to prevent lateral movement. The work piece sits in a recess and gets a bead of hot glue around the perimeter

Now I just need to remove all of the bits that aren’t Mt Whitney

But first the layers need to be glued together. I plan to do the cut in two parts, so two glue-ups of two layers each

[“Let Glue Dry” tm Laura Kampf ;-)]

First cut done, the footprint of the top half, trimming off a bunch of material that I won’t have to turn into chips. This is where this work holding method really shines.

Also had time to run the rough pass on the bottom half

My crazy plan is to glue the top half on and cut it in place. I’ll have to run the finish pass on the bottom half first as I don’t have enough z-axis travel to reach it after the top half is on, and I wouldn’t want to use such a long bit anyway

Ran the finish pass on the bottom half and glued on the top. About 3.5 hours of machine time in, this is where we find out if my crazy plan will work…

Dear reader, it was a tight fit, but I successfully ran the rough pass on the top half after gluing it in place… the crazy plan is working!

The final job is running… Whitney’s peak is revealed

OMG, super happy with how this turned out!

Hard to get a sense of scale in these photos. Here it is in my hand

Making a display stand

First color coat on the stand, after several rounds of priming and sanding