Playing with a CNC Milling Machine

We have had a small CNC Milling machine in the workshop for a couple of years and have used it for the occasional job (with mixed success). However, we have ad some time to play with it this summer and are improving our experience with it.

I do not have enough knowledge of 3D design to have designed this job, I downloaded it from Thingiverse.

I have run the file several time, either in styrofoam or Model board.

The first one was done in styrofoam and cut quite quickly (under 2 hours). The detail is low, but it will make a good weathered stone statue.

After the foam model I wanted to up the quality so I decided to use model board (a dense polyurethane foam board). I also used a very small pointed cutter and set the layer height to .3mm.
The job took eight and a half hours, but the detail is far more impressive. This video, taken at several points during the cut, shows how slow the process was...

 This if the finished piece.

Next I plan to try a hard wood version with a small ball nose cutter...