The all in one, 'how do I' and 'look at this!' thread...

[CarveOne]

white corian, .25 inch thick.

When I get started on that flag case project I'll need to order some of it. It shows very good detail. I bought some 5/16" thick white cutting boards at Walmart and have my doubts as to how good the image will be.

They make very sturdy mouse pads, and the blue light it absorbs from the mouse is pretty.

[ger21]

Are the spiral heads any smoother cutting than the knives?

I've never used one, but they're supposedly much quieter, use less power, and virtually eliminate tearout, even in highly figured woods.
I have a 6" Jet with regular knives, and I've never changed them in the 10 years I've had it. Although they've needed changing for at least a couple years now. I have 2 new sets, but I'm saving them for when I decide to sell it.

[cdrd03]

When I get started on that flag case project I'll need to order some of it. It shows very good detail. I bought some 5/16" thick white cutting boards at Walmart and have my doubts as to how good the image will be.

They make very sturdy mouse pads, and the blue light it absorbs from the mouse is pretty.

I had asked on the Vectric's forum about using deralin for lithos. the answer was to not use it, it tends to warp when stress is relieved due to the cuts. I took a 3/8s and cut down to 1/4 and it did warp. i dont remember how much, but it was enough that i didnt use it. It is good to play with though.

chuck

[Arbo]

I was using those 30 deg .005 tip cutters for fine detail in small lithos... but it seems they don't last long. I can get one or two cut and they are simply amazing, then they start sucking. Don't know if they get dull real fast or the tip perhaps get's worn so it's no longer a flat .005 ... but if they only last for a couple lithos, it's not worth using them.

[CarveOne]

I had asked on the Vectric's forum about using deralin for lithos. the answer was to not use it, it tends to warp when stress is relieved due to the cuts. I took a 3/8s and cut down to 1/4 and it did warp. i dont remember how much, but it was enough that i didnt use it. It is good to play with though.

chuck

I think these cutting boards are usually HDPE. I'll try one anyway. It should cut about like solid PVC or Delrin. It's going to be some time next year before I get around to making the flag cases. I bought PhotoVcarve and Microcarve, and downloaded another free program to use or play with for litho making.

[CarveOne]

I've never used one, but they're supposedly much quieter, use less power, and virtually eliminate tearout, even in highly figured woods.
I have a 6" Jet with regular knives, and I've never changed them in the 10 years I've had it. Although they've needed changing for at least a couple years now. I have 2 new sets, but I'm saving them for when I decide to sell it.

The Grizzly 6" G0604ZX may also be a contender when the time comes to buy one. Maybe I need to order it now for delivery before December 21, 2012.

[CarveOne]

While Googling on Free Celtic knot software I found the KnotWize website where it displays a large shaded green knot maze that you can play with online and save your results for import into Vcarve Pro, Aspire, and other CAD/CNC programs. It saves as *.png image format.

It works well, easy to use, and converts into Aspire/VCP easily with good results. You just click and drag the cursor to slice it into the shapes you want. There is a little learning involved but it looks very useful. Sure beats hand drawing the knots.

It has its limits as to what it can do, but once converted to vectors the Vectric software can do more things with the shapes using the wrapping and distortion tools.

Other sites have KnotWorker, KnotsBag, and others.

I downloaded and installed KnotWorker and it has lots of variations on the knots that you can pick from a list and deposit in the drawing area. Once you do that (or select one on the drawing area) you can highlight the list's selection bar and then the selected knot pattern can be scrolled through the list visually until you find the style you like. Seems to have ways to modify the knots also. Will keep this one on the computer.

[Arbo]

I have played with knotsbags and can't figure it out... I can 'make' knots, but they all suck. I must be missing some basic knowledge/understanding.

My lithos are done. Now I have a guy in Israel that want's some made. Another present done for in-laws new house, almost done with one for mom.. I neglected to 'plane' the boards that I glued up, so some of the 'text' carved is much lighter. Lesson learned.

And another box as a gift on the table now.

Here's the modified 'house sign' that started as the vectric project...

[CarveOne]

If I think it may come out shallow due to slight slope, crown, or cupped surface I set the Vcarve text Start Depth to about 0.008" to 0.010" depth. Especially if I put three coats of poly on the wood before cutting. It isn't perfect but saves the surface plane operation time.

KnotsBag is going to take a lot of learning to be effective with it. It appears to be the one that can do more of the weird stuff. It is not intuitive at all. I finally got it to draw something but it wasn't what I was expecting. It can do square dot and triangular dot layouts. The icons make little sense and the Help menu needs to be open while you work to learn what they do. At least the demo doesn't expire before you figure it out.

The house sign looks good. You can carve it a little deeper with a new #11 Xacto blade in a hobby knife if you are careful enough and have a surgeon's nerves. Magnification helps. I've had to do this a few times.

[Arbo]

I did without the magnification.

I'll have to go out and get a picture of it. Also worked on a box in pine. Used HD's 'select' pine. Conditioner then stain. Seemed to work ok. But the piece for the lid was glued up by me, and it's warped... so I threw on a non-'select' top on it I had cut previously (same design). The two pines don't take the stain the same, so I glued up more 'select' to cut a new top that will be flat. Also realized I made my hinge cutout's 1) too deep and 2) didn't move them to account for text on the inside of the lid. Ugh. Oh well, a chisel is your friend. As is 1/16 hobby plywood for spacers to raise up the hinges. Oh well, another full day of learning.

Will try to remember to get back with pictures today.

[CarveOne]

I haven't done anything CNC related for the past two days. Tomorrow I'll get prices and a decision on whether to use sign foam or red oak for the Celtic knot residential sign I started working on. I'm a little disappointed that they don't want the 3D knots. When I get time for it I'll just have to make a different one for my own place.

My 2 year old sign is in need of cleaning and a new coat of poly. The oak is in good condition otherwise.

[Arbo]

Here is the box with the crappier pine top. Will recut in better pine when that glueup is done. I did the inside of the box lid as well, the person it is for was named after Dylan Thomas, so one of his more famous poems is on the inside.

And the 'sappy' gift for mom.

[cd_edwards]

I think it was C1 or maybe mountaincraft who made a dxf of a plate stand. I could really use that about now as I created a nice "book" with my daughter's graduation date school and her name on it. I thought about a keyhole, but think a plate holder would look better. I'm hoping he will share that file again

[Arbo]

That's cool, is the surface where the text is actually flat but just looks curved, or if it's curved, how'd you do the text so 'level'?

[CarveOne]

Here is the box with the crappier pine top. Will recut in better pine when that glueup is done. I did the inside of the box lid as well, the person it is for was named after Dylan Thomas, so one of his more famous poems is on the inside.

And the 'sappy' gift for mom.

I like that centerpiece on the Pbox top. Looks good.

Another way to avoid surface planing is to put a dial indicator on the Z axis and move it across the material to see how many thousandths change there is over the surface. Then shim it with strips of paper under the material to make it come closer to being level with the Z axis.

It looks like from your mom's plaque that your table surface needs a little planing.

[CarveOne]

I think it was C1 or maybe mountaincraft who made a dxf of a plate stand. I could really use that about now as I created a nice "book" with my daughter's graduation date school and her name on it. I thought about a keyhole, but think a plate holder would look better. I'm hoping he will share that file again

I think that file is on another computer that is having boot problems. I should have it on the back-up external HDD. Will see if I can find it tomorrow. It should also be in my CarveOne's Worktable CNC machine build log.

[Arbo]

no, the table is ok, it was the piece of wood I glued up. I used an orbital sander and hit some of it a bit too much it seems. that part was 'sticking up' and I obviously got over zealous sanding it down.

[cd_edwards]

That's cool, is the surface where the text is actually flat but just looks curved, or if it's curved, how'd you do the text so 'level'?

It's actually curved. In aspire, you tell the machining to project onto 3d surface when you setup the v-carve path. It should actually be slightly deeper in the center as the text is not very deep at that point.

[CarveOne]

Here you go Colten. I couldn't locate the original files so I made a new one this evening. It's a medium size stand, so you may need to scale it up for the book and use 1" high hinges.

I never did cut any of these. Toolpaths can be set up for whatever size end mill or carbide router bit you want to use. I would use a 1/4" solid carbide down spiral. Round the outer edges of the plywood and bevel the hinge edges to about 45 degrees.

You can draw straight vectors or a rectangle along the hinge edges of the plywood and use them to profile the bevels with a 90 degree V-bit before doing the final shape profile. I plan to do that, but will wait until I am ready to cut a couple of them. The edge view at the bottom of the drawing shows how the shapes are made and how the hinge is installed.

The .crv and .dxf files are attached in a .zip file.

Update: Replaced the original file with v2.0 which has better hinge details.

[cd_edwards]

Thank you. I'll play around with it this weekend if I dont have to work.