After spending so much time working on this through a computer screen it was really exciting to finally start cutting. I used a peice of pink foam 24 x 18 x 2 in and an extra long .25in ball nose bit.

The pieces were cut in two passes, the first pass roughed out the shape and the second smoothed and finished the pieces. It was decided to do this in multiple passes to put less stress on the machinery. Cutting in foam it probably wouldn’t have been a problem but cutting in hardwood is rough on the bit.

Once cut, I used guide holes to align the pieces correctly and glued them together with Elmer’s gel glue.

The completed mockup of the block went well over all. There were a few scaling problems so it ended up a bit too big, but other than that I would consider this a definite success!

Next step: Cutting in wood!

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