CNC Carving?

OK, so nobody is going to argue that the best looking and most authentic carvings are done by hand.

But, what if your project needs 200 feet of moulding? Are you going to sit there buzzing away with a plunge router for 2 weeks?

Has anybody here done any carving with a CNC? I've got a CNC router with a 4'x8' table that I would love to put to work making tiki-related carvings. As I don't currently have a house of my own to tikify, the machine only does boring things like cut cabinet parts for my custom cabinet business (http://www.near-west.com).

The machine can also do relief carvings of just about any photo or drawing, even a full-wall mural if we tile the panels together.

I'm happy to run parts at nominal cost or trade to fellow tikiphiles. Let me know if you have any wild ideas!

Hello.I am new to tiki central. I guess I can give you my experience with the cnc. My back ground is as a Ice carver. I started carving ice in 1992, back in those days their was no cnc. it was all done by hand. in 1995 thier was a company called ice magic that started using the cnc machine, the cnc machine cuts perfect logos and cut with percision only because it is a machine. So what happened is that alot of people would start ice carving companies just using the cnc machine and companies started poping all over the nation. I to have worked at companies that have the cnc machine and i would run the jobs change the pits and so on and so on. So i have experince as a hand carver and a cnc operator. Now as a artist the people who program the computer are diffinitley master artist you have to know many things and designs and mathe to program the cnc and i respect that as art most diffinitly I have worked with some of the best cnc prgramers and thier is definatly a ART to that HATS OFF! But please do not get it twisted the cnc see does not carve it is machining or milling not carving. big difrence carving is when you use hand tools and hand power tools.. as far as using a machine for buisness yes that is the way to go. but machine cut items do not have a soul it was just programed things that are carved by hand have those imperfections that give it heart and soul. So run that machine make money it does perfect work, but is it a carving that my friend is where the truth must lie.

The CNC IS A POWERFOOL TOOL GREAT TO HAVE. Takes alot of talent and art and brains to use. But my opinion and experience it is not a carving.

looking forward to see other replies have a bless day

look at the picture can we really call this carving or machine work

I carved this by hand I think this is what carving is a man and his power tools and chisels. I did this for students at a culinary school

TikiVic has done some great CNC work:

Here's one of his threads (with lots of photos):
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=36286&forum=7&start=0

Thats awesome!! machine work is very clean!

I never even thought of using CNC for ice carving, I find a new use for these machines every day!

TikiVic's work is incredible, thanks for directing me to his thread. To me the CNC is a tool, to him it is an extension of his imagination.