PhotoVCarve!

[Tony Mac]

Hi Joe,

You could try these suppliers,

http://www.2linc.com/engraving_tools.htm

http://www.bitsbits.net/index.php?ma...97ae10f0d328b5

http://www.gspinc.com/products/route...s_engrave.html

Hope this helps,

Tony

[Tony Mac]

The Keep Sake below has been engraved into brass for a friend and the results look very good. In fact much better than the photograph shows.

The face was cut using a 60 degree included angle 0.1mm tip diameter cutter.

The material is 75mm high x 50mm wide and 3mm thick the Max Carving Depth = 0.3mm with 110% line spacing and it took just over 12 minutes to engrave on a Roland EGX engraver.

It's amazing how the initial result after machining looks like the process hasn't worked, then when the black paint is applied it suddenly comes to life. The excess was wiped off the surface using thinners, then polished.






Tony

[Jason Marsha]

Great work Tony, I am a still swamped at work now but will post some results as soon as I have some.

Was the brass polished with brass polish or just buffed with a soft cloth?

Jason

[Tony Mac]

Hi Jason,

The excess paint is wiped off using a cloth and when the paint has dried the top surface is polished using a very fine sand-paper. Here in England we call it Wet & Dry, which is a fine grit paper and you add a little water to help with the polishing.

To maintain a flat even polished surface. Put the sand-paper on a flat surface and rub the job over this.

Hope this helps,

Tony

[Tony Mac]

We tested the PhotoVCarve process using a piece of translucent Plexiglass (Perspex in the UK) and the results were very impressive. Interestingly we also found that the process of carving grooves into this material very quickly creates an effect that is very similar to Lithophanes!

The piece shown below is 5 1/2" high x 4 1/2" wide, Carving max depth of 0.030" and was cut using a 60 degree engraving cutter running at 3/4" / sec and took around 10 minutes to engrave.

Leaving the Plexiglass unfinished works very well as Lithophane when lit from behind.

Painting the grooves black and wiping the excess off the surface makes the picture more visible without having to change the lighting. However, I did find it tricky to leave the paint in the grooves as it tended to wipe off. Maybe, using a flexible scraper to apply the paint will also scrape the surface clean.

Finishing this type of material needs more investigation and any ideas would be welcome?

I must add that as always, the actual piece looks much better than the photographs.

Tony




Results straight off the machine do not look promising, but..



Holding to the light reveals the Lithophane magic!



Painting with black paint produces the finished result.

[joecnc2006]

Tony can you tell me the exact bit you are using so i can order some?

thanks alot.

Joe

[Tony Mac]

Hi Joe,

I used a standard carbide engraving cutter - 60 degree included angle with a .1mm flat tip diameter. When engraving 'small' designs It's important to use small tip diamters of less than 0.005" if possible.

Looking around for suppliers in the US and found,

http://www.2linc.com/engraving_tools...raving%20tools

Catalog No. 10134 .005" Tip, 1/4" (.250") Dia, 2" long, 60 degree angle - $16.35 ea

Catalog No. 10108 is the same tool but 1/8" diameter at $9.55 ea.

Looks like the min order qty is 3 tools

**************************
http://www.bitsbits.net/index.php?ma...97ae10f0d328b5

This company offer even smaller Tip diamters which is better for small jobs, and you can order single cutters at $12.50 ea.

Hope this helps,

Tony

[HenryCNC]

Hello all,

I have really enjoyed look at the results everyone has made.

...was wondering what it looked like if you ran two cutter paths 90 degrees to each other. For example, from the upper left to lower right then another pass from the upper right to lower left. Does this destroy the effect or create a different cool result?

Henry

[Tony Mac]

Hi Henry,

PhotoVCarve does include the machining option Cross Hatch, which cuts two sets of lines at 90 degrees to each other - exactly as you have mentioned.

In theory this approach will double the cutting time (twice the number of lines), but the line spacing can be increased so the actual cutting time is more like 50% more. This cutting strategy gives very interesting results and the brass picture of Marilyn Monroe shown below has been cut using the Cross Hatch option.

This design is 3" high, was cut using a 60 degree 0.004" tip engraving cutter and took around 30 minutes to engrave.

Tony

Please remember it's pretty difficult to take good pictures of these designs (for me at least) and the actual piece looks much better than it appears below.




The original picture shown below was found on the internet.

[Dman]

Tony,
When I choose Mach2/3 processor I get some strange gcode for my machine. I choose regular gcode and everything seems to run fine. I tried the photo of the small boy and it sure looks great! I am going to purchase the product soon but would like to know why the post processor file for Mach2/3 is so odd. By the way these were both for inch measurements and not mm.

[Tony Mac]

We certainly have customers running both VCarve Wizard and PhotoVCarve with Mach2/3, so not sure what's causing the problem.

If you could e-mail the toolpath file to support@vectric.com we will take a look at what's causing the problem.

Thanks for reporting this,

Tony

[Dman]

Tony,
I emailed the code but it was not the original because I had deleted it already. I tried to re-create the code by using the same settings I had when I got the strange code. It may have been something I did but I'm really not sure. The code I sent may be fine, I never tried it. Anyway here's the picture I carved using the gcode processor. As you say, the picture doesn't do the product justice. Very Nice! This was done on a scrap piece of MDF. Size was 6 inches by 5 inches. Cut time was about 20 min using Mach 2. I sanded a little and used steel wool to bring out the picture. I am a novice to picture engraving and still have alot to learn but not too bad for my first attempt.

[Dman]

Another example of what I have made with my Photocarve software. After using it for several days,I now see that it is my finishing technique that must be perfected. The picture is there just as seen in the rendered image on the computer screen just need to find the ways to bring it to life. This software really is great and EASY to use. These pictues again do not look as good as the real product.

[Dman]

More pics of what I've done so far. This one cut into pine. Cut time about 15 min. Size is 6" square.

[trevorhinze]

I am impressed by some of the examples shown here and have downloaded the trial version of Vcarve Photo to try out. I have found the program to be very easy to use, and I had what I thought was some good code within 10 min of installing the program but I am having a problem cutting anything out. I used the provided Big Ben example and had the program create the code for Mach2, and later plain inch g code, but I have strange results when I get to the mill. When I open the file up with Mach2 it displays toolpaths that look like what I would expect to see cut, however the bit just sits down in the lower left corner cutting away for the whole duration of the program and I end up with a little cut out about one quarter inch in size( I was trying for a 3" square size) I have doouble checked to make sure that I have everything set to inches as that is my preferred format, and I don't have any luck. I hope that I am just missing something simple, Please Help!

I will also attach the gcode file

Thanks

Trevor Hinze

[Tony Mac]

Hello Trevor,

The toolpath file looks fine and includes, G70 = Inches and seems to run from X 2" to Y 3".

Is there an option on Mach 2 to set the units as it sounds like the file might be running in Metric on your machine?


Dman - Can you shine any light on this as it sounds similar to the problem you originally encountered?

Tony

[trevorhinze]

Thanks for getting back to me, I do have Mach 2 setup to accept inch units as that is what always use for milling, The strange thing is that the toolpath displays fine on the screen, and looks about like I expected, but the machine doesn't actually follow the path drawn on the screen, but rather stays in the lower left corner near the orgin of 0,0. I am fairly sure that my machine is functioning properly since it has no problem with code generated by sheetcam, and I am sure that I am somehow missing something simple somewhere along the line.

[joecnc2006]

Thanks for getting back to me, I do have Mach 2 setup to accept inch units as that is what always use for milling, The strange thing is that the toolpath displays fine on the screen, and looks about like I expected, but the machine doesn't actually follow the path drawn on the screen, but rather stays in the lower left corner near the orgin of 0,0. I am fairly sure that my machine is functioning properly since it has no problem with code generated by sheetcam, and I am sure that I am somehow missing something simple somewhere along the line.

Is Mach2/3 set to absolute units? I remember having that problem in EMC

[Dman]

That is exactly the problem I had also. I since have been using the Gcode processor instead of the Mach2. I will look into what Joe suggested when I get home tonight (at work now). I have not had any problems since using the Gcode (inch mode) post processor though. Everything is working great for me. Everybody I show my pictures to wants me to make them some. Sounds like I might be able to pay for the Vcarve software with the Photocarve! I hope so.

[trevorhinze]

I have Mach set to Inc units, as this is what works with sheetcam, should I try to set them to Abs, or is Incrimental the correct setting? I would really like to get this to work since I think that the results look really neat.