Gather your material. I used some 1/8in thick single sided finish hardboard that cuts a lot like MDF, but you may want to use another material. If you do, you may need to split or move around the pieces in the Easel project to accommodate your material size.
Important: Be sure that your material thickness is 1/8in because the slots that hold the sculpture together are 1/8in wide. If you don’t have 1/8in thick material then you will need to scale the pieces to a size where the slots large enough to fit your material.
Clamp down your material and use either some double sided tape in the middle of the piece or have Easel pre-drill some holes in strategic places and add screws to help hold down the middle. (Thanks for the suggestion Erik Jenkins). I find it helpful to do all of the above… clamp, screw, and tape.
If you’ve placed down a piece of material that is the size of the project or larger and is well held down, then you are ready to carve.
I normally set the depth of the carve just shy of cutting all of the way through and then sand the pieces loose after the carve is done, but your milage may vary and you may want to cut with tabs or cut all of the way through using a vacuum table.
Either way, sit back and enjoy the machine doing the work and think of all of the time you are saving not having to cut this intricate pattern out by hand.
Now that the bones have been carved, you may want to sand and finish your material, being sure that the slots are all clear of tear-out and any left over pieces.
Finally to make your Velociraptor come alive, sit down with a child or a child at heart and assemble using the pattern found in the image below.
I want to thank Erik Jenkins for all of the vectors for this project. I am merely the messenger.
Check him out on the forums here:
https://discuss.inventables.com/users/ErikJenkins/
Danielle Lee
Jeremy Richards