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Trying my hand at 3D stuff

1115 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Roy_Burns, 
Gaffboat
I have always liked dimensional signs so I tried my hand at creating a simple little 3D Pub-type sign to honor pubs, dogs, and the Queen (not necessarily in that order). It was created in V Carve and cut out of 3/4” pine. I think I will ultimately paint it and will have to give the painting some serious thought about colors and technique.

One thing about a using a CNC for projects like this: It ain’t fast. Total cutting time for this was about 3 hours and 25 minutes. However, hand carving (if I had the skills) would surely be a lot longer so it is one of life’s trade-offs. Besides, even if it takes a long time to carve, it looks so cool when finished.

I think I like this stuff. :smile:

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RainMan 2.0
Really nice design Oliver . I can't wait to own a CNC someday
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H
Ollie,

You've never heard any of us say 3d carving was fast. Also, the smaller and lighter the machine, the longer it takes. There are shortcuts you'll learn along the way. Did you do a rough cut or just the finish cut?
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mark greenbaum
Nice thing with CAD, you can , recycle ideas, make simple changes to the fonts or art work rapidly, and see what it'll be before committing to wood.
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Gaffboat
honesttjohn said:
Ollie,

You've never heard any of us say 3d carving was fast. Also, the smaller and lighter the machine, the longer it takes. There are shortcuts you'll learn along the way. Did you do a rough cut or just the finish cut?
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Yes, I did a rough cut first. Since the finish cut was with a .125 ball nose bit it was understandably slow. I only cut at 50 ipm with the ball nose because I wasn't sure how fast I could cut without taking a chance on breaking the bit. The bit has a 1/4" shaft and is running in a Dewalt 611 router. Do you think I can cut faster than I did? For end mills and V bits I usually set the speed at 100 ipm.
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H
Ollie,

Depending on the material, I run up to 180 ipm. Rough cut with a 1/4 in end mill - no problem. Most woods will do down to 1/8 in ball nose with no problems. Also, you can do most finish cuts that normally use a 1/8" bn with a 3/16 bn. A lot, if not very fine detail, can be done with a 1/4" ball nose. Just run the different bits on your toolpath preview and decide what you can live with.

The nice thing is that once you have a decent dustmop and vac system, and know your machine better, you can start a cut and go do something else in the meantime. You don't have to babysit it constantly.
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M
Greetings,
A quick suggestion would be to set your feed and plunge rate the same.
You'd be surprised how much slower a setting of 100 ( X, Y ) 30 ( Z ) to a setting of 60 ( x,Y ) 60 ( Z ) is.....
Especially for 3-D cutting.

Michael
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Roy_Burns
Speed on bas relief.

What is your spindle speed? Given a .125 ballnose with .25 shaft I'm going to assume HSS. What​ is your scallop height? Can you discriminate between text and the rest of the piece with your software (steep plunges are more difficult)?
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