Cool MDF Panels

[todd71]

Those are really cool. My wife wants me to make some decorative panels for the house now. I've seen designs that look like water ripples with very natural wave patterns that would look really cool tool. Would be much harder to design though.

Just depends on the software and amount of detail your looking for. Another consideration is weather you need to "panel" the tiles so the the edges are continuous. Which takes a little more time. But like anything, the more you do it the easier it becomes.

[bp092]

They are certainly eye catching. I believe vcarve has a feature in it that allows you to do that, just haven't explored it much. For this face machining I would say that I wouldn't use anything less than double-refined MDF (I prefer RangerBoard) or spraying primer on those panels would be like spraying water into dry soil.

[zenbot]

Wow todd. that first picture is amazing. How did you make that? what software did you use?

[todd71]

Wow todd. that first picture is amazing. How did you make that? what software did you use?

I designed it in Adobe and modeled it in ArtCAM using the gray scale image. Came out pretty cool. The whole panel looks kinda like a germ.
But that's what they wanted.

[JerryFlyGuy]

Todd I'm curious as to how you sprayed the rayite? My understanding was it doesn't just work w/ any kind of gun??

Curious..

J

[todd71]

Its rayite 200 http://www.gypsumsolutions.com/newsc..._Rayite200.asp
The proper spray machine is the cost prohibitive part. I got good enough coverage with a modified piston pump. But was a big mess to clean up
fast as needed to keep everything from getting clogged up. Keep in mind I was just testing out the idea so the pattern was only 12x18.

[RMFlorida]

@Todd71 - I signed-on just to tell you how great I thought your designs look, and to ask whether you used the same technique for the "wave" design as you used with the "germ".

The wife absolutely loves the Interlam product (starting to see it in many retail shops); however, it's not in the budget so I thought I'd try my hand. I have a local CNC shop that I source work to, but I'm not sure that I have the tools I'll need. I'm proficient with Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator and AutoCAD, but I have no familiarity with CAM software.

The CNC shop may let me get on their system and play with ArtCam, but I doubt I'd be able to pick it up in such a short amount of time.

Any suggestions for recreating this without a CAM tool, or possibly doing the majority of the work in AutoCAD, then handing it over to my shop to convert to a CAM drawing?

Thank you in advance!
-RM

[todd71]

"Any suggestions for recreating this........"

Don't be affriad to make mistakes. Learn all you can from them.
If you don't have time to do that, just buy it.
Takes time to do anything right.
I've posted a basic idea of how to do the wave pattern at
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas..._Patterns.html

Good luck,
Todd

[stickermanstl]

Does anybody have the artcam or cad file of that? I would love to do that as my ceiling panels in my basement.

[todd71]

I've got tons of them. And everything has it's price.
Even then, if you got ArtCAM you should just do it.
There's no reason to think you can't. Not trying to
sound like an A-hole, and I'd sell you anything you
want, but whats the point of owning ArtCAM if
your not going to learn to use it?

[stickermanstl]

I dont know much about artcam. Only did a few simple carvings with it. How would I go about doing it?

[multiplex]

just when i think i've seen it all, i find this thread! very cool. now for some brainstorming

[fatal-exception]

Those panels are first class. Nice work Ger and Todd!!

[stickermanstl]

Thanks for the boost of confidence!!! I figured it out today. It turned out awesome!!!

[todd71]

Congratulations! Your smarter than you thought. Now for the fun part. Finishing them. Seal, sand, fill, seal, sand ......... The fun stuff.
Cool pattern.

[stickermanstl]

Thanks again Todd!!! Im cutting the full sheet as I type. I will post some pictures of it when its done. The boss loves it!! I didnt think artcam was so easy to use. We just used it to cut foam letters for indoor decor signs. I program in autocad so I was looking into it way to much. It was extremely easy.

[todd71]

Sometimes you just got to step back and think about it. No worries. But the jobs not done till you hang them. Light them up. And then you can pat yourself on the back for a "Job well done". Are you just going to screw them into your ceiling?

[stickermanstl]

No, I going to replace my 2x2 drop ceiling pads with these. I got our other CNC working 24 hours a day to cut all of them. Man it takes forever.

[BobWarfield]

These panels are very cool!

Thanks for sharing them.

Best,

BW

[nztomcat]

Looks very similar to what I used a few years ago to make a display room counter.

Was simple enough got a black and white sketch of sand in bmp converted it to dxf. Created lead ins and lead outs to give it a nice "flick' then changed the depth betweedn some cuts to make it look like the ovean had been running over coarse sand

We used a custom 70mm bit rounded to do these as it worked out a lot faster to process as well as the cuts didnt look defined and there werent any flat bits either.

If you want to take these the next step you can cut 3mm slits though the back half of the board every 15mm. Then shape the top of the board.

This can then be steam heated and wrapped around a counter or similar. Just be carefull when you do this as to mauch will ruin the MDF theres a fine line between ruining the board and making it work well.

Will try find some pictured of the display