Customer Spotlight

"Oregon Trail: Pushing the Limits"

The natural beauty of the great outdoors often evokes overwhelming emotions and is indescribable with words. When Ray Glenn looks out of his window at the nearby snow capped mountains, he states, “Looking at nature and its beauty is simply amazing. The trees, animals, landscape – it’s all part of nature’s art.” Though it may be nature’s art, Glenn is giving nature a run for her money with his masterful creative eye and amazing woodworking skills.

As a young boy, Ray often joined his father on trips to their local woodworking shop. He later enrolled in woodshop classes in high school, but he admitted that “woodworking is a hard way to go”, referring to the time and skill set that the craft requires. Eventually, it was electronics that caught Ray’s attention and subsequently led him to CNCs.

After acquiring over 9 years of machinist education, Ray obtained a job in a ski area in the Pacific Northwest where he spent over 22 years working with robotics and automation. However, working with a lathe everyday was not as appealing to Ray as he had once thought. “Sitting in front of a lathe everyday for hours at a time was not my idea of a fun career.”

After starting to build his own CNC out of spare printer parts, Ray accidentally stumbled upon the CarveWright when searching for CNCs on an internet search engine. Once he saw the CarveWright, it immediately caught his attention. After 4 months of research, Ray finally purchased his own CarveWright, and immediately got to work.

We also asked Ray if there were any other tools that he uses to make his projects. He responded that “I definitely use Photoshop a lot for my projects. Many times, I will hand sketch a drawing on paper and scan it into Photoshop. Once there, I will tweak it until I get the desired outcome. Afterwards, I import the grayscaled image into the Designer Software where I will make additional changes, if necessary. Besides the Designer Software, I would say that Photoshop is definitely a must have for me.”

Finally, Ray stated that he has learned a lot on the CarveWright User Forum, as well as from other CarveWright Users and Pattern Vendors. Ray can be found on the CarveWright User Forum under the name “RayTrek.” To join the CarveWright User’s Forum, visit www.forum.carvewright.com.

Ray Glenn lives near Rhododendron, Oregon with his wife, Mary Jane, and his daughter Kelly.