Making a fireplace mantle – Part 1

Ranch scene mantel complete

We’ve been working on a couple of fireplace mantles with large wood carvings in the face. These mantles are demo’s we are putting together to show people what we can do. Click on any of the images to see a bigger picture.

The process of creating these mantles starts with choosing the 3D wood carving we want to present. In the case of these two projects we chose a wildlife scene with deer and a cougar and the second mantle is a ranch scene.  Once we chose the themes we wanted, it was time to go to work creating the carvings in our design software. This took a about 2 hours of computer time using Vectric’s Aspire CAM software to get them exactly they way we wanted them to look. The pictures show a progression of this process.

The process of creating the models requires some knowledge of vector design. Everything in Aspire uses vectors to create shapes and objects. For example creating a model of the top of an airplane wing is a matter of having two lines that are the outside shape of the wing and then a third line that represents the foil shape.  We can use a process called two rail sweep to apply the curved shape of the

wing inside the outline of the wing. This is illustrated in these two pictures. The picture at left is the vectors drawn out in the wing shape and the smaller curved line reflects what the shape of the wing will look like.  The picture at the right is what happens when the software uses the three vectors and combines them into the 3D model. Pretty neat, Huh!

To make the deer mantle scene we first selected the background scenery we wanted to use. Once that was put into our model and scaled to size we choose some deer models that we wanted to put into the background scene.  Since I wanted a little drama in the scene (a cougar approaching) I chose deer that were alert with two of them looking in the direction of the approaching cougar.  I figured that deer grazing with a cougar approaching was an oxymoron (contradiction). Deer would not be idly grazing if a predator was nearby.

Once we get everything laid out the way we want it, we have the software calculate how the CNC will actually carve the model.  This is accomplished by moving a router bit in 3 dimensions; X, Y and Z. X and Y are the length and width of the carving and Z is the depth of the carving.  The video below shows what the CNC machine does when being controlled by the computer to create the 3D carving.

The files created to carve this mantle scene was comprised of more then 460,000 individual commands to make the router bit move from one point to another.

Once the machine work is done we end up with a 3D carving that now goes under hand chisels for final detailing.  The pictures below are of the carving prior to the finishing process getting under way.

Thank you for taking the time to read this little training post on designing and building a wood mantle with deer scene carved into the mantle face. In the next installment we will cover building the framework of the mantle and finishing the mantle. So check back for the next installment and in the mean time, cruise around our website and take a look at other projects we’ve done.