I was looking for some other exotic woods

FWIW: Some of those woods are pretty toxic where it comes to breathing sawdust.

Just thought I'd post a picture of the latest..

This is unfinished PurpleHeart. I figure I'll finish it with a clear laquer.

If you want to purchase it let me know.

We gonna get to see a burled walnut facia any time soon? I'm guessing there would be some interest in that since it seems to be the wood trim of choice in most cars (at least in audi's and BMW's).

-Adam

Just terribly curious and impatient :) : qhat about the metal ones? How advanced is the work, so far, and when do you expect to sell them?
Thank you!

Kind of reminds me of the Rio Receiver.

Calvin

My burled maple wood is being cut into the size I need as we speak. I should have it back from the woodworker next week and I will start cutting. I too am looking forward to seeing those.

Rob

The metal face plates are going slower than I expected. They take a ton of work on my part and I have already had multiple facia's get messed up after more than 8 hours of cutting. Cutting that much metal is slow and very demanding on my CNC Mill. I've been reseaching some machine shops for outsourcing with not much luck. One place even gave me a quote of $179 each. I am meeting with a company next week to discuss some other possibilites. In the meantime I am cutting other materials.

Rob

Hey CruzThs,

Thanks for your updates. Is there a dark black wood that you can recommend for milling fascias? I thought maybe a dark black ebony would look pretty radical? Seems to be a high demand for black fascias...
--Andrew

I've been following this CNC thread and others since they started. Nice work!

I just have a few questions. If these facia's are made from wood won't they be *very* weak around the buttons and such?

You can also stain wood very easily. Shouldn't forget that. The darker you start with, the better, if you want to get near black. About the only way you'll get true black is by painting though. Or cut the fascia from coal. :)

Around here, the darkest wood that I know of (that is easily bought at any Home Depot) is Walnut - dark brown.

Bruno

Don't get me started on the Home Depot diatribe. :-p

I guess if I were to invest in a new fascia, I would to get something nice and unusual. Painted slab of wood isn't much better than the standard plastic, probably worse.

Ebay has tons of nice exotics up for auction...

--Andrew

They may be somewhat weaker than the original plastics faces but since there really is little or no sideways pressure on the button holes I wouldn't worry. Also, many exotic woods are fairly hard and hold up well.

Rob

I see.
Thank you so much for your updates and hard work. Now, plese keep posyting pics of other fascias you're cutting, if you don't mind, I am still very interested and I am sure also many others in here. My original empeg fascia is borken (at one screw hole. You don't see it from outside byt the fascia bends slightly when I handle the empeg) and I am still ionterested in replacing it with some more resistent material. Unfortunately, wood does not match my car interiors, in general, but maybe some particular kind of wood may do well....

Again, thank you so much!

I'll keep everyone posted. At this time the holidays are slowing me down but I'm still hard at work. I should be getting my maple burl any day now and I'll make a few samples with that. I also have a couple more aluminum face plates nearly finished (require polishing) so I'll post some photos once they are done. The great news is that it looks like I may have found a machine shop that can cut 50-100 of the aluminum face plates for me at a fairly decent price.

I'll keep you posted.

That's fantastic. There is no way I can afford it but I'd love to see the results of the wood, preferably on my own empeg. (sigh)