Faint!
Lemo 
2 words.
Holy crap…
John- Oh man…this is fantastic. What a dream it would be to be working on this kind of stuff.
Thanks for sharing.
johncox85, Thanks for being so forthcoming with the process info. I use almost the same workflow at my shop for sculpture enlargement. I only have a 4 axis carver, so am limited in that capacity. For normal enlargement, we use a laser scanner to capture and Rhino for cutting and layout. I was looking into Mayka for awhile, but did not find it useful without a 5axis router in the shop.
Lately, we have been using zbrush fairly extensively for digital maquette creation staight out to the machine. It can’t be beat. Laser scanners are great, but nothing’s better than a nice clean digital model. Also, people tend to sculpt small much different than at scale (large head syndrome). Zbrush really allows you to get in there and get it right.
I think it is great that you are carving the clay on your cnc for final finish. I want to try this but am unsure if it would be useful to me. Artists tend to want to move the clay around on the enlargements and I am sure that the hard clay would make this impossible for them. In house creations or my own work is another matter…I plan on using the technique for sure.
Application of CAD tech to traditional sculpting adds a very powerful tool to the sculptor’s box. www.metalphysic.com
That Thark is awesome!
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Wow. thats amazing. I have to post something to this thread so I can get email and not lose track of it. I need to read more of it as later. Thanks for the demonstration.
Hi John, you have a very interesting job, pity I live in a 3 world country, as this seems to hi tech for us…
What 5 axis machine do you use, as i would love to look into this possibility, maybe our country Namibia is not to small…?
have watched you video, you should do a full tutorial and produce it on DVD, I’ll be your first client…
Keep up the good work…
Ziggy
Hi Ziggy,
I was in South Africa in 2004 filming ‘Racing Stripes’. Namibia wasn’t too far away. See attached photo of me with 2 animatronic animals we created for the film shot in Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa.
I have a Thermwood 5 axis machine. Look into the software to use, Mayka is a very,very good programme to use. Patrick Thorn and Company in the UK distribute it. The table size is 10ft long, 5ft wide and z axis(depth) 900mm. The z axis is the one that costs the money, afford the deepest z axis you can.
The Thermwood uses a Siemens based code to operate but you need another piece of software to calculate your cutting paths.This is where Mayka is the secret weapon as it sees forms rather than the normal CAD way of looking at things.
When we have an object to cut it will be in stl format.
Mayka opens this file and shows us the 3D image. We then have to decide how to cut this shape up so that the machine can do its job. I’ll post some jpegs tomorrow. Once we have segmented the object into pieces we then have to calculate cutting paths using 3,4,or 5 axis to get the finished pieces. The Thark for example was cut in the following pieces front of head, back of head, front of body, back of body, front top right leg, back top right leg, front top left leg, back top left leg, same for lower leg and same for all 4 arms. So it takes a lot of pieces to make a whole. Each object is different depending on its size and shape. Once the pieces are machined they are then hot wire cut off the remainder of the block of poly and glued together. It is a big 3D jigsaw puzzle in which all pieces fit together perfectly.
Any other questions just ask.
John
Hi John, Thanks for the quick response, and its good to see you’ve been in our part of the world…
John this process could probably used with a Prototype machine and Mayka for smaller scale projects, eg. the slicing of the model and later assemblying, as the ABS Plastic machines are limited to size and I would be using it more for art than anything else…
Just subscribed to your newsletter and have been on your site, what a line of work, something I’ve always dreamed of…
Enjoy…
Ziggy
This has got to be the most international zbrush thread. Who knew that CNCing could bring the world together like this 
Here is some more silo to zb to cast bronze.
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Huge !
Nice stuff!
Recently we made chair legs with ZB Carving. Unfortunately I cannot show the carving. But here is an image of the legs:
The legs are tapered into all sorts of directions, have a sweep, in short… all the evil components of fancy woodworking. To get the mahogany legs into position for our 3/4 Axis router several cradles had to be made. We used Rhino3d to boolean subtract the leg geometry from the stock material we defined and voila… perfect cradles. The legs were routed with tab’s. Once they were cut, the legs fit perfectly into the cradles. The cradles were attached to the router bed with clamps. Easy to take out, and back in. After the leg’s were carved with the router, all were flap sanded with a fine grit so that the detail does not get damaged to much. Over all 30 mahogany chairs were made with 4 legs each, each engraved on four sides. A month worth of work and a very happy owner in Manhattan. Recently I started to give classes to fellow woodworkers/artisans on how to integrate cnc systems into their workflow. If someone is interested in this, please let me know. We are located 20 minutes away from Manhattan in NJ.
Cheers
Lemo
I am interested, but a bit far…
Ziggy
No Problem… we figure something out.
Lemo
Mech fish fountain…progress for today.
Who needs a holiday bbq when one has a foundry 8))) 
Lemo
Really amazing stuff! So awesome to see those digital sculptures in real life…and that big!
Im a bit confused on the process. Do you take your 3d model and have that 3d printed then make molds of that for metal casting?
Lemo, In general, a foundry is a barbecue (especially here in Arizona)!! Not too hot yet…not yet triple digits (that is coming later in the week).
AA-ron, Modeled in Silo, Zbrush
Cut up, Layout, conversion to .stl in Rhino
Toolpath (for CNC Routing) in Millwizard (G code out to Router)
Carved in EPS
Assembled
Mold in polyurethane rubber
Wax print out of mold
Invested in Ceramic Shell
Wax burn-out
Cast in Bronze
Welded together (last fish pic)
Blend seams
Patina
Done
Wow, sounds like a lot of work…but great results!
Javalinas rule, if you guys want to talk about getting your zbrush pieces cast check out www.metalphysic.com i know its a shameless plug but we can turn your digital sculpture into a real one. It’s not cheap, but its worth it.
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