Nope. Didn't like it! So, I've cut the vine on the cnc out of the abalone/epoxy material that I made. Now, THIS is usable.
I'm going to go through the steps I'm using, in case anyone wants to do something similar in the future. You can refer back to how I made the "ablam".
This is how I "clamp" shell and small pieces of wood. Remember that I just have a small desktop cnc.
BTW, I attach a spoilboard the same way I'm attaching the shell. This way, there are no clamps to get in the way. It's also great because the pieces that I'm shaping won't move or pop out as the cnc is running. Glue holds everything until I'm ready to release it.
I've found that masking tape
doesn't work. The adhesive gums up the bit. Some painters tapes will work; some don't for the same reason. 3M 233+ green tape works perfectly.
As I said, I attach the spoilboard the same way I'm attaching the shell to the spoilboard. I tape off the board, then tape off the bottom of the shell. I use CA glue, spread around with a stick, on the taped back of the shell, then I position the shell on the spoilboard. I use medium viscosity or gel CA glue.
It sets up quickly. While it's setting up, I bring up everything on the computer and I cnc the shapes.
I simply pull the tape off of the spoilboard, to remove the shell. Then I remove the tape from the back of the shell. The glue is in-between the layers of tape and never contacts the machine surface, spoilboard, or shell.
These are the raw pieces of vine from the cnc:
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