Vote for the Winner of Last Month's CNC Project Challenge!

Submission A

"Something that AI gives us is access to all the works of the masters. Here is a project that I created in EasyCreate with the prompt: just the hands of Michelangelo's God Creating Adam"

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission B

"l made this model from a picture a friend sent me with Easy Create and Aspire. I used 6/4 cherry and measures 16” x 13.25“. My wife painted it."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission C

"I’m still fairly new to CNC, but I bring a 25-year background in printing, and I’ve found there are a lot of similarities in job setup. Especially when you compare it to wide format and signage work with cutter tables. To me, CNC just feels like more tools and one extra dimension to think about.

I wanted to share a fun restoration project for my daughter that I think really fits this month’s theme.

The piece is a flip-top desk that I’m guessing dates somewhere between the 1940s and 1960s, based on the dowels I pulled out and the original plywood bottom. It was a thrift-store find when my daughter was in high school, and she spent countless hours at it studying, writing, and doing artwork. After a year in storage while she’s been away at college, I got it back and it was literally falling apart. The glue on the dowels had finally given up.

I decided to restore it and personalize it based on her love for dragonflies and lavender.

I stripped it down to flat boards (I love working with old pine the smell, the tight grain, and the character of old-growth wood). One thing worth remembering: aged pine carves much more like maple than modern pine. It’s harder and far less forgiving and easy to forget if you’re used to newer material.

I used Easy Create to generate the carvings and carefully set them into the 0.65" thick boards, trying to find the right balance between flattening and ramping into the material without cutting too deep.

This was the result.

Lessons learned:
• Mockup exact board replicas in Aspire and place your designs there first.
• Even if placement looks right on screen, it may not be where you want it once carved my first attempt proved that.
• If you decide to add something to the back side of a carved board, don’t trust that raising it off the bed means it’s level.
• Always check height with the bit at all four corners before running the toolpath a 0.03" difference was very noticeable on my shallow personalized V-carve.

Overall, it was a great reminder that CNC blends technical precision with the same craftsmanship mindset I learned in print just applied to wood instead of paper. I would also like to thank Kyle and this community for the knowledge shared in the short 2 months of owning my CNC. It has given me the confidence to try things I normally would not be doing in this short period of time."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission D

"I took a picture i had of a friend of mine who owns a vacuum business. and told AI to give the picture a super hero look, holding a vacuum and sucking up the competition. i then sketch carved it and painted it.  "

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission E

"For this challenge, I used Copilot to create a color logo for my shop -- East Hill Woodcraft. I then asked Copilot to create a simplified vector version of the logo suitable for CNC carving. The logo was added to the lid of a round keepsake box with a 3D rope border. Hunter green flocking added to the bottom for the final touch. The wood is cherry finished with General Finishes Arm-R-Seal."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission F

"Model was created in Easy Create from a prompt. Made it for a friend, (Dave) with a ton of feeders in his back yard.

Project is 16"x20" out of Cherry. A little over 4 1/2 hours carve time. Rough pass with 1/4 EM, finish cut was with a 1/8 TBN that really brought out the detail.

Just for experimental reasons i did the same model using sketch carve in a 8 x 10 format with a 90V bit. About 30 minutes carve time.

Both turned out amazing but Dave was speechless when he saw the 3D one.

My first project from Easy Create, and my largest 3D project to date."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission G

"I asked AI to give me two different scenes with dolphins. One was dolphins jumping out of the water, and the other with dolphins with a view from a cave with coral of dolphin swimming underwater.

This is a 15 inch wide by 39 inch tall by 2 1/2 inch thick black walnut. This is pretty much what AI gave me, & I did this with Easy Create from Vetric. I added the texture around the edges of the slab and 3-D modeled the cave in the middle between the top surface and the cave below.

 "

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission H

"I created the dog with Easy create. The plaque is for a friend of mine. This is her dog."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission I

"I needed a new emblem for the grill on my truck. I used Easy Create to generate the image of the ram and make the 3d model. Then imported it into Aspire and made the full emblem and set it to the exact size. Once the machining was completed, I hand engraved the fine details using an ultra high speed engraver. Then colored it with stains."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission J

"This is an Airbnb welcome sign I crafted for a client from Alaska Yellow cedar.

The Chocolate Lab 3d carving was done using a photo of the owner's dog processed by Vectric's Easy Create and touched up in Aspire. I controlled the coloring on the model with different grits in the sanding process. The middle piece is burned, ashes removed and polished. The outside rope frame was created with Aspire. The head is attached to the frame with magnets to conceal the mounting hardware underneath.

"

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission K

"I used ChatGPT to create the image of the deer and then converted it to a 3D model using Easy Create.

I repeated the process for the background and then combined both in Vcarve Pro and carved with the 1/16 " bit for the final resolution."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission L

"I used easy create for this I asked for my cat setting on a window seal on a sunny day and this is what I got."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete

Submission M

"I used this picture and then prompted AI to put a shotgun and a harvest of pheasants hung from a leather strap. I liked it except for that the pheasants were hung by their feet instead of their neck."

-Maker revealed after voting is complete