ShopBot’s Bill Young says he’s “kinda, sorta retired”. He’s been with ShopBot from the beginning and has contributed to advancements in the CNC world and the maker movement throughout his nearly 30 years of heading up special projects and contributing to R&D. And that’s after a boat-building career! Occasionally, we ask Bill to share some details and media from his latest experiments. He’s not ready to stop exploring and making things with his ShopBot CNC machines, so we’ll keep featuring his projects for as long as he’s willing to share them with us.
Over the past year or so, Bill has dabbled in CNC machining mother-of-pearl using his ShopBot Desktop MAX CNC machine. From inlay to earrings, he’s had some fun bringing intricate designs to life. Here are a bunch of his pearl projects with descriptions from the man himself.
The following descriptions are provided by Bill:
Mother-of-pearl blank glued to scrap plywood using carpenters glue. Plywood stuck to machine bed with double stick tape.
Cut using 0.023″ endmill from Precise bits, the same bits used for guitar fret slots.
After cutting, soak the blank in hot water to dissolve glue, which in turn releases cut parts from plywood. No nasty solvents needed.
Lines in Eastern Shore earrings cut with 30 deg v-bit.
Fish are inspired by a cartoon cat swallowing a fish. Swallows the fish hole and pulls out whole skeleton!
If used for inlay, toolpath as if you were using a 0.022″ bit and then cut with a 0.023″ bit. That gives enough slop for a good fit.
Using the same Mother of pearl blanks as the other items, I cut a pocket and then paint these with a paint pen. The edges of the pocket act as a boundary so the colors come out distinct. Scraping with a utility knife blade cleans up any slop.
I offset the cut about 0.018″ to make the boundary for the pockets.
—
View more of Bill’s work on his Instagram account.