Chris Bathgate: Amazing CNC Sculpture Art on a Small CNC Machine

For those who believe that CNC is not a form of art, or that smaller CNC machines are incapable of producing superior quality work, allow me to introduce Chris Bathgate and his remarkable sculptures. His artwork is truly exceptional.

The detail and finish is exquisite.  The designs are otherworldly-it would not be hard to believe they're UFO components smuggled out of Area 51.  I could spend hours going over the online gallery of his work, each one is so inspiring.

What I find equally fascinating is that Chris is using small CNC machines.  In fact, his Industrial Hobbies CNC mill is similar to the first CNC mill I started with:

Bathgate's Industrial Hobbies CNC Mill includes a 4th axis...

And his small CNC lathe complete with a tool turret...

Truth is, we live in an amazing time when anyone can own a CNC machine and do the kind of work CNC machines make possible.  Even the smaller ones are capable of amazing things.  I ‘ve written in these pages about making Titanium AR-15 Lower Receivers on an even smaller miller-Titanium is considered an extremely difficult material for such machines, but it is possible.

With the right techniques,  you can machine most any tough material and get good results on a small machine.  It just takes longer than on a larger machine.  You're limited only by your imagine.

Thank you to Wesley for bringing Chris Bathgate's work to my attention.  If you know of a very cool CNC project, write to me here at CNCCookbook ([email protected]) and I'll see about getting a blog post together about it.