Ramblin' Dan's Workshop

Some people have hobbies like playing in a band, or making quilts, or cutting scrapbooks and cards, or working in creative arts like mosaics or clay, or re-purposing and restoring old materials. There, I think I covered my family pretty well.

Me? Well of course it is anything I can do in my home workshop.

This time I have created a set of cookie dough stamps. The idea isn't original with me as I saw this project over in the Vectric Web site. It provides me a good project to run on the HB2 router.

Here is a link to the PDF document that made me take on this little project. Now that Gloria has seen the finished product, she wants me to make a lot (3+) more for family and friends.

This is a sheet of 1/4 inch Corian® on the HB2 router. There is a thin "spoil board" underneath to protect from cut-through. It is all held down with double sided tape.	The 90 degree V-cutter is carving the designs in the surface of the Corian®. The cuts looked good the first time around but the designer added a second clean up pass which helped.
The cutter was changed to a 1/4 inch down spiral end mill router bit. This is cutting all the way through in two passes, forming the discs.	The run is finished and I wiped away the Corian® chips. They filled in all the spaces when I wiped the surface.
Here you can see the cut-outs went all the way through. The tabs are designed in and hold the disks in place so the cutting doesn't damage them if (when) they shift when cutting through.	The tabs are removed and cleaned up on the micro band saw. This is the perfect machine for this job. The saw teeth are finer than a standard band saw.
All the disks cut out. Click on the picture to enlarge and you can see the patterns in the stamps.	The HB2 also cuts out the curvy end pieces of the rack. Extremely precise with CNC accuracy. It also precisely cut the dado with little effort.
The rack shelf was easy for the router. Two bits were used the 90 degree V-cutter for the bevel and the 1/4 inch end mill for the cut out.	The rack is dry assembled to have a look at the fit. That is the finish the CNC router produces on the cuts. Very nice.
The wood here is Popular. Maple would be good if I could find some S4S boards. The V cuts on the stamp heads is done. The 1/4 inch end mill is ready to make the dowel pockets and do the cut out.	This is the glue up of the rack and the faces on the stamp heads. Initial sanding has been preformed on everything. The stamp heads will be sanded again to clean up the excess glue (epoxy).
Another look at the stamp heads. These are the designs the project designer provided but imagination is the only limit. With the Vectric Sofware I use I can make any kind of design or initials (already requested.)	This is a short video of the HB2 doing some of the router cutting work. I like to watch the machine doing all the work so I figured you would too.
The finished stamps just in time for the holiday season. Thanksgiving is next then on to Christmas.	I am already receiving suggestions what other kinds of faces I could make for these stamps. That could be another pursuit, making custom stamps.
UPDATE 12/2/11 - Here is what happens when a good plan runs wild. The workshop gets over run with cookie stamps.	I added this enhancement  to the ends which I think greatly improves the look and moves it out of the "shop class 101" genre.
The original is on the table runner. Now Gloria wants one of the newer racks. So... build another rack or just trade?	Here is the little secret underneath. My maternal grandfather always marked his projects with a stamped name and date. V-Carving is just a natural progression of the tradition.