At the same time I cut the first batch of foam, I cut the MDF. I'm using MDF mostly because it's cheap and readily available. Although not pictured, my first attempt was on 1/2 in MDF. The main board grains were cut 1/8 in deep, the actual grain lines were cut 1/16 in deep. This gave it a really accentuated pattern which I really liked. I switched to 1/4 in MDF though to save on weight so that changed the depth at which I could cut. The board lines in this instance are 1/16 in and the grain lines are 1/32 It's still pronounced, but requires weathering to really accentuate it. I cut an additional mdf blank a bit deeper and will compare before I put the final piece together as to which I like better. I think I will be leaning towards the deeper cut one just based on recognition.
Onto how I fixed my foam cutting issue. When I first cut it I was using the bottom left corner as the origin point. With this version I switched the origin to the center point. The cutting was done with a 3/4 in router bit, so at the center of the piece I plunged and cut a hole all the way through. I cut a pocket the size of the MDF insert and slightly larger in the thickness, so that it would sit below the level of the foam. When I went to flip it, I sent the machine to the home position 0,0 - and then used the hole I cut to slide the foam over the bit and effectively re-center it. This got it to within an 1/8 of an inch, which was pretty good in my book. Since I knew the center point was 100% registered I ran a cut job and trimmed excess making sure the outside was a uniform size all the way around on both sides.
In the picture there are some blue lines these we scribed with a sharpie and a compass and I will be using a fine rasp to chamfer from line to line to create the rim of the shield.
A word about the photgraphy - I know it's not the best. I'm trying to get a place set up to where I can actually document my work (not just taking some Iphone pictures). These didnt come out as great as I liked and are heavily processed in Photoshop as a result (auto-color). This will be an ongoing challenge for me so please bear with it.
I've got to go cut those chamfers and hopefully I can work some more on this; this week or next.
If you guys have any questions regarding the cutting process my previous entry was pretty detailed, but feel free to let me know. I appreciate any and all feedback.
Cheers,
Kevin
