My first attempt

[Caprirs]

This software is neat. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it and make some cool stuff.

I just used a picture of one of our cats laying in a window sill. The "clouds" in the background are just window film because it's a bathroom window and we are modest folks not interested in showing off to the neighbors.

The detail is amazing when held up to the light. I should have started with a better photo with more light and dark contrast but this turned out pretty neat.

Material is .150" thick polycarbonate about 8" x 6". I roughed it with a 1/8" ball endmill and finished with a 3/64" ball endmill. My clamping method was inadequate as you can see along the left edge where the material lifted up during the roughing pass. It was done on one of my Dyna VMCs at 7500rpm with the rough pass at 50ipm and the finish pass at 200ipm. Finish took about 5 hours.

I'm sorry, I don't know how to add the thumbnails, so I can only provide links.

Original image:
http://mc-machine.com/mcm_gallery/al...1280.sized.jpg

As cut piece:
http://mc-machine.com/mcm_gallery/al...alv6.sized.jpg

Backlit:
http://mc-machine.com/mcm_gallery/al...alv4.sized.jpg

[Tony Mac]

Hi Caprirs,

Great to see you are having fun machining Lithophanes!

Tip for embedding picture links

Enter the path to the picture, highlight the link and click the Insert Image icon from the editing menu - looks like a postcard with a mountain and stamp in the top right corner,

This adds - [IMG] and [/IMG] to the path and makes it visible in-line with the post. So linking to your pictures will look like,

[IMG]*http://mc-machine.com/mcm_gallery/albums/PhotoVCarve/calv4.sized.jpg*[/IMG]
(I've included the * *to stop the link working so you can see it)

I hope ths helps,

Tony

[Caprirs]

Thanks for the tips on adding the images. Actually, I understand how to embed the image in the post, but I was confused how the others are adding the "attachments" with the little thumbnails that allow dial-up users to view the thread without choking their bandwidth with full images. My feeble brain just found the little button "Manage Attachments". Silly me.

I saw some of the images of the lithophanes and had to try it. They just look so cool. This software is so easy to use, I love it. My neighbor has a woodworking shop in his garage and we're going to play around with it some more. I mostly machine aluminum parts for aerospace companies so this was a fun diversion. I need find a local source for the Corian material that seems to work so well. I'll try some cabinet/countertop makers in my area.

[Caprirs]

I tried another stab at this yesterday. The picture is just a portrait of my wife and me. This time, I used some scrap Corian from a countertop place. The speckles didn't seem so pronounced before cutting but they are quite evident afterwards. I'll have to stick with more solid colors for future projects.

Material is 5" x 7" x .5" Corian. Color unknown. I pocketed out 3/8" deep so there was about 1/8" material left but kept the "frame" so clamping would be easier. After pocketing, rougher was 1/8" ball endmill and the finisher was the good ole' 3/64" ball endmill. I don't know how long the finish pass took because I went to bed and let the machine finish.

The PhotoVCarve software is great. Creating the toolpaths takes just a few minutes and the results really are cool.

[dighsx]

The lithopane looks good Caprirs. Nice job.