Creative Brad Point Round Overs

[Joe Crumley]

The Brad Point Round Over bits are seldom employed for creative carving. These little bits open up several opportunities. I use them in two ways. First of all they perform quick magic when shaping individual letters and they are unmatched for detailed V carving. I much prefer them over V bits due to the Brad Point.









Joe Crumley
Norman Sign Company, Norman, Oklahoma, SandBlasted Signs, Sign Painter, Redwood Signs

[jack halley]

Thanks for the views into your processes!

[Jason Marsha]

Love those letters Joe. I still have not tried your process but will post the pictures when I make my first attempt.

Jason

[Joe Crumley]

This is an eye opener and it's hard to go wrong. This is a place to play around and experiment. No longer are you obliged to use time consuming 3d techniques to round over letters. I'll also make a demo, when I get the time, on how to use both V bits then retrace the steps with a brad point.

Joe Crumley
Norman Sign Company, Norman, Oklahoma, SandBlasted Signs, Sign Painter, Redwood Signs

[mhasting2004]

Hi Joe

+1 on the use of brad point bits.. this is a fishtank surround I did for someone. I was going for a brain coral type look, unfortunately I don't have a finished and painted pic. Doing this as a 3d carve would have taken ages and not had a straight from the machine smooth look.
Basic steps to get cut vectors was...

• convert original pic of coral to mono then use vector magic to create outlines of dark areas (cracks in coral)
• use v-carveing to get centerlines of these areas
• cut along these vectors with constant Z depth

Lots of tweaks at each stage but you get the idea.

With your v-carving of text how do you compensate for the non linear relationship of depth versus width that using a shaped bit introduces? I don't believe SW like Artcam allows for anything but V bits when doing v-carving.
I can think of ways of mathematically adjusting the depth (run g-code thru excel for example) or do you just restrict your depth of cut to the lower section of the bit only?

Cheers

Mark

PS Kudos on your sharing knowledge and pay it forward attitude.

[Joe Crumley]

Excellent work Mark,

I like your Brain Coral just like it is. Must be HDU. Have you ever considered cutting this type file from a gray scale jpg. I'd like to give it a try.

You're right about the technique I use when profiling my letters with a round over. It's a constant height. With very thick and thin letters the bit take off considerable material from the thin area's. Using FlexiSign I sometimes thicken up those parts.

Using round over for V carving.

The technique I'm using is to set the strategy for a 120 degree bit. As you mentioned, there is an anomalie because when the bit raises up in the corners it
it doesn't come to a zero point. That works ok on small letters like the ones in my photo. All of the carving on the panel was done a as a with a V carve technique using a .50 roundover. It does distort some of the corners but I find it refreshing.



I'm looking forward to seeing more of your fine work.

Joe Crumley

[mhasting2004]

Thanks Joe

The material is actually MDF as this was just a demo piece. not sure what is available or where it is in OZ for HDU, sign board etc. I've not done any signs yet but am keen to try my hand at it. 3d sinage seems to be in its infancy over here so could be a growth area for my home built machine in the garage.

I've done a few grey scale things.. pics in this thread:
Some More CNC Projects - Woodwork Forums

however in this technique it is importat that the width of the lines is determinative inorder for the line screen to work with accurate grey levels. I do intend on playing with shaped bits like brad points but this will require a bit of post processing of the g-code.


I really like the patina on the fonts... very nice touch

Cheers

Mark

[Joe Crumley]

Mark,

Your Brain Coral would look good with some of the Sculpt Nouveau on it. That material is the hardest I've ever seen. Although it's water based, if you get it on your clothes, it will never, ever, come off. It's made of ground up Iron, Copper, Brass, Peuter, etc. Once painted on, while wet, you mist on one of their acids and the magic starts. Sculpt Nouveau - Patinas and Metal Finishes

I'm running Vectric & Aspire software to produce my G Codes. Mach 3 has been my control. This combo is hard to beat.

What other CNC forum have you visited?



I hired these boys to install. The surface is SN Copper with Tiffany patina.

Joe Crumley