3D gun plaque machining

Here is a little project I did on the side for my wife’s grandmother very shortly before she died at 91. She was the epitome of class but also a card shark, a Marine who served in WWII, a competitive tennis player, a truly outstanding cook,  a social butterfly, and generally quite an amazing lady. We had many great times together and I’m glad that I got to play the last game of C&O with her even though she beat me all three hands. She will be sorely missed. Apparently she was also a champion at Draw Spades and went undefeated against her son who suggested a custom made plaque as a Christmas gift. Unfortunately my machine wasn’t up and running in time for that but I was able to design it, machine it, and give it to her shortly thereafter. These are the first CNC operations with the new motor so I left the 3D machining full of rapid retracts to test the stalling susceptibility of the Z-axis motor since there was a net weight gain of about 40lbs over the old motor. It worked great and didn’t stall once. I thought I would add it to the blog just because it’s cool seeing the plaque take shape in fast forward. There is also something just hypnotic about the real time 3D machining as the pistols take shape.