Fecn
Established Member
I decided to spend my lunch hour today making a bigger version of one of the elephants I used on my Toybox project - I spent this evening finishing it off. I printed out a 13cm wide version and used pritt stick to stick it in place.
I wanted to make sure the tail was well supported, so I deceided to leave a part of it in place. I drilled a small hole and did my first every piercing cut.
I got rid of most of the saw marks using a drum sander...
Mr. Elephant went for a walk on the belt sander to ensure his feet were flat and that he could stand up properly (sorry for the poor pic quailty - I've been using my mobile)
Although the cutting-out operation had gone well, the elephant was looking rather plain and dull... I decided he needed some eyes and ears so I found a picture of an elepant on the net, printed it out at the right size, and glued it on the back and front - I then used my dremmel with a 1/16th cutting bit to trace out the positions for the ears, eyes and tusks.
Next, I used a larger flat-bottomed spiral cutting bit in the dremmel to bulk remove some of the wood around the back of the ears, the trunk and the tail. Around the tusks, I made multiple cuts at different heights to make sanding easier later on.
I carried on working the shape using the little coarse drum in the dremmel. I also cut away some of the material around the tail-support so itss no longer obvious.
Next I worked my way through hand sanding from 100 grit up to 320 - I should have spent a bit more time doing that, but I wasn't feeling too patient. And in a fit of further impatience, I decided that I'd just use two layers of wax rather than waiting for an oil finish to dry.
I have to say, I'm rather pleased with the result - For an unplanned project, completed in a few hours... and my first attempt at sculpting/carving... I never knew I had it in me.
I wanted to make sure the tail was well supported, so I deceided to leave a part of it in place. I drilled a small hole and did my first every piercing cut.
I got rid of most of the saw marks using a drum sander...
Mr. Elephant went for a walk on the belt sander to ensure his feet were flat and that he could stand up properly (sorry for the poor pic quailty - I've been using my mobile)
Although the cutting-out operation had gone well, the elephant was looking rather plain and dull... I decided he needed some eyes and ears so I found a picture of an elepant on the net, printed it out at the right size, and glued it on the back and front - I then used my dremmel with a 1/16th cutting bit to trace out the positions for the ears, eyes and tusks.
Next, I used a larger flat-bottomed spiral cutting bit in the dremmel to bulk remove some of the wood around the back of the ears, the trunk and the tail. Around the tusks, I made multiple cuts at different heights to make sanding easier later on.
I carried on working the shape using the little coarse drum in the dremmel. I also cut away some of the material around the tail-support so itss no longer obvious.
Next I worked my way through hand sanding from 100 grit up to 320 - I should have spent a bit more time doing that, but I wasn't feeling too patient. And in a fit of further impatience, I decided that I'd just use two layers of wax rather than waiting for an oil finish to dry.
I have to say, I'm rather pleased with the result - For an unplanned project, completed in a few hours... and my first attempt at sculpting/carving... I never knew I had it in me.
. Well done!
