One thing led to another...

[RomanLini]

That's some beautiful guitar woodwork Louie!

That quilt maple strat looks amazing.

[louieatienza]

That's some beautiful guitar woodwork Louie!

That quilt maple strat looks amazing.

Thanks Roman! It's not even sanded yet, that's fresh off the press. Sanding it smooth to 400 should make the grain even more 3-dimensional looking! We're going to use aniline dyes, in a four stage staining process, that should make the figure look like ripples in the ocean. Basically I would start with a dark blue, sand completely off, then amber to add a little warmth, then a lighter shade of ble, and finally use an airbrush with the darker blue to make a subtle "burst", yet still transparent. The center will look almost aquamarine with the amber and light blu

I wish I had started down the CNC path sooner; this saves so much in terms of hand labor. Of course here is still some manual labor, but now it's more devoted to detail and finish!

I can't sand it down yet as I'm waiting for binding material. Hopefully soon!

[CarveOne]

Thanks! I thought about that, but was worried that it might obscure some of the finer lines, some of which are not even .01" thick! I'm thinking of doing different color stains, and stippling, to mimic stone. But I think I will try a larger one, and maybe use Corian or oter solid-surface material? How did you end up finishing yours?

MinWax Dark Walnut stain in the darker parts and Golden Oak stain in the lighter parts. MinWax clear satin polyurethane finish. It takes about five coats brushed on before it fills in and stops having a leathery look. The photos aren't as natural looking as they should be. The camera doesn't do so well under fluorescent lighting.

I have one that was cut too shallow. I may get a can of the stone finish and see how much it covers up the grooves. Using a 60 degree cutter may alleviate the filling up problem.

CarveOne

[louieatienza]

MinWax Dark Walnut stain in the darker parts and Golden Oak stain in the lighter parts. MinWax clear satin polyurethane finish. It takes about five coats brushed on before it fills in and stops having a leathery look. The photos aren't as natural looking as they should be. The camera doesn't do so well under fluorescent lighting.

I have one that was cut too shallow. I may get a can of the stone finish and see how much it covers up the grooves. Using a 60 degree cutter may alleviate the filling up problem.

CarveOne

I like the color on that! I think I might just give that a try; have the stains in my shop. I also like the deeper V-carve; i may do another attempt with the deeper pass.

[CarveOne]

I like the color on that! I think I might just give that a try; have the stains in my shop. I also like the deeper V-carve; i may do another attempt with the deeper pass.

Instead of changing my cut file I just Z zeroed a little deeper to save time. I put a piece of 1/4" plywood between the table surface and the MDF so I wouldn't cut the outer profile into the table top (I had eight tabs defined). I think I reset it to zero at about -0.010" from the surface of the MDF.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

BTW, this one is 15" diameter. Also, I used a fine point artist brush to darken the groves. It took a few hours to do that.

Update: 12" not 15" as originally stated.

CarveOne

[louieatienza]

Yes, I think I will make my next one larger as well. For the small one I thought going deep would look a bit cooky.

A trick to keep the stain coats down in MDF is to size it with a mix of thinned white glue. Makes it easier to sand the edges and milled inner surfaces as well.

To insure I got a precise surface to v-carve on, I surfaced the entire piece with a 1" straight bit. When I chucked the V-bit in, I got it hand-tightened snug, but still can pull the bit in and out. I then placed a small block of 1/4" Mic-6 on the surface, and brought the bit down to it. Once I hit the plate with the bit (slowly!), I go down enough for the bit to "push in" the collet. I then zero it out in Mach3, raise the bit and tighten the collet nut. Afer I'll manuall enter a G0Z-.25 and rezero the Z. It's pretty precise for what I do. It doesn't take a lot of force to tighten with with the new collet and nut.

Hopefully, once I get the limit and home switches set, I can set up automated tool setting as well.

[CarveOne]

The white glue may also keep the dark stain from going everywhere I don't it to bleed into. I'll try it next time.

C1

[CarveOne]

Another aluminum test cut. This time it's foe a keychain for my fiance. I'm thinking I could go faster on the feedrate, though I wasn't sure if the end mill could take it. Also I do get a little bit of backlash from the Lovevjoy couplers I used, but overall I'm happy with the results. What I'm not happy with is the cheap Ryobi v-bit I used for the v-carve. It actually does not come to a point, so the v-carve is not perfect. Not bad for MDF, but I need to get a better bit!




This piece is about 3" in diamter...

Hey Louie, if you have an interest in Celtic Knot designs, I found this site that will make it easier to do custom designs for CNC uses. It may work well for V carving. Scroll all the way down the long page to see some good examples, even aluminum CNC example.

There are lots of sites with information and drawings for ideas.

CarveOne

[louieatienza]

Hey Louie, if you have an interest in Celtic Knot designs, I found this site that will make it easier to do custom designs for CNC uses. It may work well for V carving. Scroll all the way down the long page to see some good examples, even aluminum CNC example.

There are lots of sites with information and drawings for ideas.

CarveOne

That is the coolest thing! Just ordered it! Thanks for the tip, hope to feature some of it soon....

[CarveOne]

That is the coolest thing! Just ordered it! Thanks for the tip, hope to feature some of it soon....

I didn't order it yet, but will. I wasn't so sure that the filled version was better for CNC than the open version. There is a detailed 10 page document on how to draw the knots manually versus using the fonts.

I didn't have any luck last evening trying to convert one of the graphics to a DXF format with Inkscape. There has to be an easy way but I'm not so adept with this stuff yet. I didn't try loading the image directly into Vcarve Pro so far.

Got any ideas?

CarveOne

[louieatienza]

I didn't order it yet, but will. I wasn't so sure that the filled version was better for CNC than the open version. There is a detailed 10 page document on how to draw the knots manually versus using the fonts.

I didn't have any luck last evening trying to convert one of the graphics to a DXF format with Inkscape. There has to be an easy way but I'm not so adept with this stuff yet. I didn't try loading the image directly into Vcarve Pro so far.

Got any ideas?

CarveOne

I haven't played with it much yet. But it is pretty cool! You could fraw them manually, but since there are about 200 different "symbols" that interconnect this makes it easier...

The fonts are available in VCarve because they're just TTF fonts that install just like any other Windows font. I just have to figure out how to reduce the line spacing in VCarve so that the patterns connect.

I believe you can make the patterns in Microsoft Word and export the image afterwards, but haven't tried it yet....

But yes, the filled version is better than the open version for CNC, because the filled version will give you outlines when you convert to curves and the outline version will givev you an outline and an inlinem though that might be cool to carve as well. Thinking about this, it might be cool to do a "prismatic" raised carve as well, as that would be pretty easy.

BTW $20 for the fonts versus going though 10 pages of instructions.... I'd pay the $20!