First V-bit carving using Carveco

[difalkner]

Well, it's only been about 6 or 7 months since we bought Carveco and I finally watched enough tutorials to hack something out - yay!!  I have been feeling guilty spending so much on software and not using it so I picked something that brings Fusion 360 to its knees - lots of text.  I love F360, very powerful software.  It does not handle text very well at all but it's the sweet spot for products like the Vectric line and Carveco.

Not wanting to use my pricey hardwoods I picked up a 12"x48" glued up board of Spruce/Pine/Fir (I think this is Pine) at Lowe's and figured I would start with that.  This also represents only the second or third time I have had Pine in the shop in the last 5 years - it tears my allergies up like crazy!

So, on to the project; it's 9.5" x 12" x 3/4" thick, cut with a 5/8" diameter 60° bit, 100 ipm, 18k rpm, and cut with two passes.  The first pass took most of the material and I did a follow up pass lowering Z by 0.005" to clean up any fuzz although there was far less than I would have thought for Pine.  Cut time was about 12 minutes (per pass).  I squared it off with the table saw rather than cut it out on the CNC.

The finish is Nitrocellulose sealer, sanded, one coat of gloss lacquer, sanded, Mohawk Van Dyke Brown glazing stain, sanded, final coat of semi-gloss lacquer.  The finish took about 30-40 minutes including drying time.

Here's the finished plaque -

Plunge router and keyhole bit for the hanging slot -

I was surprised how cleanly the Pine engraved for this tiny logo, which is about 1.5" across, and cut with a 1/8" 60° bit -

Using Carveco for the first time was kind of fun and a wholly different approach than using Fusion 360 but there's a lot I want to do with it, including some 3D work.  Actually 2.5D, I guess, because the bottom will be flat.  This isn't truly the first thing I have cut with Carveco but it's the first thing I can show.  Last week I asked our pastor's teenage daughter to send me a photo of her and her new dog but didn't tell her why.  So I took the photo and V-carved it and it came out really nice and she loved it.  But since she's a minor I don't plan on posting any photos of that project.

Enjoy!
David

[Mick S]

Nice, David!

Just curious. Are you a subscriber to Carveco or did you buy it outright? Also, which package did you opt for?

I've never used Carveco, but did use ArtCAM for a couple of years about 20 years back before EnRoute developed their 3D modeling capabilities. Now I use Aspire with the Saturn II and we have an educational license at school.

[difalkner]

Thanks, Mick!  We bought it outright during the introductory period and it's the full Carveco package.  At this point I probably won't continue maintenance past the 12 month period but if it really begins holding its own in the shop I may reconsider that decision.

Davd