Popular Post difalkner Posted April 18, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 I have wanted to cut something like this for a while and this looked like a good project to test in Carveco. I knew the cutting would be fairly straight forward but was unsure how long it would take because I haven't calibrated this type of cutting in Carveco. The material is 1/2" MDF and it took 40 minutes cutting at 200 ipm, one pass with a 60° 5/8" diameter V bit, 18k rpm, 0.03125" stepover, and cut depth of 3/16". Except for the perimeter cuts it rarely got close to 200 ipm. I probably could have set it to 400 ipm and the results would have been about the same. My goal was to make it look old, somewhat weathered, like it had been discovered in the sand on Tatooine and had been there for years. In other words, 'pristine and perfect' was NOT my goal. The finishing steps were as follows - 1) two fairly heavy coats of Nitrocellulose sanding sealer, 2) one really heavy coat of Rust Oleum brown Hammered paint, 3) brushed thinned black acrylic into the recessed areas and wiped it off, 4) placed in oven at 170° for a couple of minutes and turned off but allowed the piece to stay in until the oven cooled, and 5) one good coat of Nitrocellulose semi-gloss followed quickly by a lighter dusting coat. The lacquer caused the underlying coats to crackle a bit and gave me the desired look, at least I am pleased with the way it came out. On the CNC - Two coats of sealer - Brown Hammered paint - After black acrylic and wiped off - Aged look - Aged look close up - Enjoy! David 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenskye Posted April 18, 2020 Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 I get Darth Vader, but the rest is beyond me. After the original 3 movies I lost interest. Anyways great job as usual! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
difalkner Posted April 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 Thanks, Bryan! Yep, means nothing to me but true aficionados love these. I'm giving this one to a friend's 6-year old son who will go nuts over it. Now my 32-year old son wants one! LOL! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mick S Posted April 18, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 Your CAM program went negative where mine went positive. You must have had one more outer circle around the whole thing than I did. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
difalkner Posted April 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 That looks great, Mick! I take it yours isn't cut out of MDF 'cause it's too smooth. Maybe it's a different dxf file - I just grabbed the first one I found. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted April 19, 2020 Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 Both are awesome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted April 19, 2020 Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 29 minutes ago, difalkner said: That looks great, Mick! I take it yours isn't cut out of MDF 'cause it's too smooth. Maybe it's a different dxf file - I just grabbed the first one I found. David It is MDF, ¾". I primed it with Rustoleum brown, followed by 2 coats of flat black. Then I rubbed the surface with Silver Rub 'n Buff. This was the first one I did. The second turned out much better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
difalkner Posted April 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 Very interesting on the negative/positive aspect. But then, this is only about the third time I've used Carveco and the first time I have imported a dxf file so I probably did something wrong. I may play with it and see if I can get it looking like yours, 'cause I like it better. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted April 19, 2020 Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 9 hours ago, difalkner said: Very interesting on the negative/positive aspect. But then, this is only about the third time I've used Carveco and the first time I have imported a dxf file so I probably did something wrong. I may play with it and see if I can get it looking like yours, 'cause I like it better. David I haven't used Carveco. but in all the other CAM packages I've used, they automatically reverse the male/female cuts based on alternating inside/outside vectors. So if you have an outer circle and two inner circles, the area between the outer and first inner would cut positive, the first inner circle to the second inner negative, etc. Try drawing a circle around the file you downloaded an retoolpathing it. It should reverse the positive/negative. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
difalkner Posted April 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 I deselected the outer ring, Mick, and now it looks very close to yours, which I prefer. So I'll cut some of these and see how they come out. I may also play around with the finish for different effects. David 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post difalkner Posted April 22, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted April 22, 2020 Busy morning cutting Longworth chucks and Star Wars Aztec calendars. I cut three 12" calendars and one 9" calendar. These are all the inverse of what I cut the first time, like Mick's calendar. Two of the 12" calendars were cut with a 60° bit, one at 250 ipm followed by the next at 125 ipm. In some of the details I can see pieces broken so I slowed it down to see if the feed rate had anything to do with it - it didn't. And it only made about 3 minutes difference in the total time because it never gets up to 250 ipm except when cutting the groove around the perimeter. So I switched to a 90° bit and all the cuts came out much better and no pieces broken. In the end, given the way I will paint and distress these, it's not going to make any real difference anyway, but I just want them to be as close to perfect as I can get. A couple of hours cutting calendars produced this - Tomorrow I'll do my finish and see how these come out. David 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted April 22, 2020 Report Share Posted April 22, 2020 Nice, David. I didn't have any issues with the 60 degree bit, but I used ¾ MDF and a ¼" dia bit with a ⅛" end mill for a clearing pass. I doubt either would make any difference but good to know that switching to the 90 might work if I run into in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
difalkner Posted April 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2020 It cleared everything in one pass, Mick. It's a 5/8" 90° bit and my guess is the real reason it cleared so well is the 0.03125" stepover, pretty small for something like this, I would think. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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