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Thread: FINALLY - A perfect carving after 5th try

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lexington, TN
    Posts
    91

    Smile FINALLY - A perfect carving after 5th try

    My carving machine has sat unused for about 8 years. It had 30 minutes carving time on it when I decided to do something with it the end of January from when I unpacked it and did a test carving to make sure it worked when I got it home.

    I wanted to create something special for my wife for Valentines Day, which didn't happen. In the process of this I decided to also do a copy of my project for my 95 year old Aunt who raised me. I started out with one thing in mind and did carve a nice carving out of spruce that was about 8" x 10" with a deep recess carved out in the front so the heart and roses pattern I purchased on the Pattern Depot would stand proud in it. The carving turned out well, but fuzzy - but after a couple of days the carving became bowed as someone else has posted about having trouble with here as well.

    So I thought I would create a wooden plate shape in a 2 sided carving sort of like the collector plates that use to be fairly popular. I created a 10" diameter plate that I am right proud of - then blended the hearts and roses pattern into the bottom flat area in the center.
    All carvings done in red oak. The first one done on the rear side, and about 75% done on the front side, when suddenly the carving started carving deeper and ruined the front side carving. Second attempt produced a fairly decent carving, but showed faint carving lines across the front that just didn't please me, even after trying to sand them out. I couldn't get them all due to the detail of the carving. I used best bit optimization and best carving upload to the card.


    The next 2 attempts were on the same carving. The machine stopped carving after 2 hours on the back side and kept telling me to close the cover. I was unable to complete the first attempt and I replaced the QC chuck with the Carvetight chuck and the A907 kit after working on the phone with tech support trying to determine why the cover switch stopped working. Even jumping the switch with wire wouldn't allow the carving to proceed. Anyway about $400 in new hardware and tried to save the carving by creating a region that had 0.0 depth over what already carved and was surprised that worked really well. Carving was within a few thousands of inch of being perfecting aligned with the first attempt. On the front side there were 2 areas that are just below the surface of the board that didn't carve at all. This could be salvaged with a Dremel tool and a little hand work. The salvage attempt was 7 hours 45 minutes total machine running time. Part produced was useable but not perfect. I gave that one to my son-in-law yesterday to finish for my oldest daughter - while carving another one again yesterday.

    I have carved about $75 in red oak to date trying to make the perfect gift for my love. While the salvaged one will be a nice one after some hand work, I choose to attempt again. Just the perfectionist in me I guess. I want to give her the very best that I am able. Pictures are of the #5 carving finished about 7:30 PM last night as it was removed from the caving machine. I still have to cut it out and finish it, but the carving quality is superb. Smooth with no faint lines to be seem. This time carved on Optimum quality which produces excellent quality results.


    Having installed the dust collection system allowed me to work on daughters 2005 Venture van trying to help son-in-law replace the sparkplugs on the rear side ( glad it is not my vehicle!) which we worked on in my driveway in front of the shop porch where the carving machine and DC blower where running.

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    The back side is carved out deeply around the outer edge and tapers to a flat 6" diameter center with a small rectangle carved to hang this from. The edge is about 0.1" thick around the circumference. 1"x12" oak board 19" long.

    I'm proud of this! And it seems it took a long time to get here, but I think now there are some good things coming.

    I intend to enhance this further with my laser engraving machine. I will post pictures of the finished plate. I hope I get that right - I'd hate to have this turn out so good, then mess it up trying to laser engrave on it.
    A Series machine purchased in 2007
    had 30 minutes running time up till 2-13-15

    Ring Neck Blues DC Insert (outstanding job keeping machine clean!), HF DC blower
    Designer 3.102, Pattern Editor, Pattern Sculptor, STL Importer, Scanning Probe, 2D Vector Drawing Suite, 3D Pattern Modeling Suite, Centerline text, Conforming Vectors, CarveTight Chuck, Decorative Bit set
    Universal Laser ILS series laser engraver with dual laser cartridges 135 watts total with 24" x 48" table and Class 4 module

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Cornwall, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    1,343

    Default

    That is very nice Mike!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Northern Colorado
    Posts
    7,962

    Default

    Mike,

    This one is truly a labor of love, is that a love of labor ? Persistence pays and I am sure the little woman will love it.

    Job well done!
    RingNeckBlues
    My patterns on the Depot
    DC-INSERT It Just Sucks!

    Proven to out perform all others!
    Buy CarveWright
    Colorado FaceBook Users Group


    All patterns and projects that I share on the CarveWright forum are for your personal carving purpose. They are not to be shared, sold or posted on any other web site without permission from RingNeckBlues Designs.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lexington, TN
    Posts
    91

    Smile

    This was what I gave her today at lunch.

    I Laser engraved on the back side then filled the engraved area with gold Rub-n-buff. Laser engraved our names on the hearts on the front, which had to be done one at a time due to different height of hearts and having to focus the laser to each height separately, then laser engraved a phrase on the tapered area on the front of the plate which was tricky due to the taper and the laser needing to be focused to the surface height.
    The laser engraving was very tedious due to trying to get exact placement. You will notice the board the plate was carved out of laying on the cutting table in the laser. I vector marked the outline of it on the white poster paper to position the board exactly in the proper place so the engraving would line up. I had to import a picture of the carved board into Corel Draw and scale it to the plate in order to get exact positioning of everything. It took hours to lay all of this out and actually get it lined up on the carved plate right. I have a 3" lens which allows more forgiveness in the focus that was used all the laser work. Then filled with gold Rub-n-buff too. Silver would have been better, but it's too late for this one.....

    There's no amount of money one could offer me I don't think to do this again. However, I "might" attempt another one some day for Frances. Getting the carved plate took weeks and several attempts, then the layout work and positioning in Corel Draw and the laser took several hours with some of it being trail and error as the pictures show trying to get the phrase lined up on the tapered edge of the plate.

    All in all I am pleased with it. Being a perfectionist has it's drawbacks for sure, but when we do something for someone special to us we expect our best because we want them to know that we care enough about them that we want to give them our best.
    Frances took it to work an said she was going to put it on bookcase in her office.
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    A Series machine purchased in 2007
    had 30 minutes running time up till 2-13-15

    Ring Neck Blues DC Insert (outstanding job keeping machine clean!), HF DC blower
    Designer 3.102, Pattern Editor, Pattern Sculptor, STL Importer, Scanning Probe, 2D Vector Drawing Suite, 3D Pattern Modeling Suite, Centerline text, Conforming Vectors, CarveTight Chuck, Decorative Bit set
    Universal Laser ILS series laser engraver with dual laser cartridges 135 watts total with 24" x 48" table and Class 4 module

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    The Great Texas Gulf Coast
    Posts
    5,314

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike58 View Post
    This was what I gave her today at lunch.

    I Laser engraved on the back side then filled the engraved area with gold Rub-n-buff. Laser engraved our names on the hearts on the front, which had to be done one at a time due to different height of hearts and having to focus the laser to each height separately, then laser engraved a phrase on the tapered area on the front of the plate which was tricky due to the taper and the laser needing to be focused to the surface height.
    The laser engraving was very tedious due to trying to get exact placement. You will notice the board the plate was carved out of laying on the cutting table in the laser. I vector marked the outline of it on the white poster paper to position the board exactly in the proper place so the engraving would line up. I had to import a picture of the carved board into Corel Draw and scale it to the plate in order to get exact positioning of everything. It took hours to lay all of this out and actually get it lined up on the carved plate right. I have a 3" lens which allows more forgiveness in the focus that was used all the laser work. Then filled with gold Rub-n-buff too. Silver would have been better, but it's too late for this one.....
    Centerline Text, Conforming Vectors and a v-bit would have done the same thing on the CW.

    There's no amount of money one could offer me I don't think to do this again. However, I "might" attempt another one some day for Frances. Getting the carved plate took weeks and several attempts, then the layout work and positioning in Corel Draw and the laser took several hours with some of it being trail and error as the pictures show trying to get the phrase lined up on the tapered edge of the plate.
    But look at how much you learned!

    All in all I am pleased with it. Being a perfectionist has it's drawbacks for sure, but when we do something for someone special to us we expect our best because we want them to know that we care enough about them that we want to give them our best.
    Frances took it to work an said she was going to put it on bookcase in her office.
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    It is a beautiful piece!! I am sure you earned major points, today!
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    2,877

    Default

    What a beautiful piece of art! Great piece. CW and a laser are great complimentary tools. I am learning what my laser can do to granite now and I am finally starting to feel comfortable with my CW. There has been a time or two I have been ready to chuck my CW out a 3rd floor window but I am so glad I persevered. It is an amazing tool.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lexington, TN
    Posts
    91

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by oscarl48 View Post
    What a beautiful piece of art! Great piece. CW and a laser are great complimentary tools. I am learning what my laser can do to granite now and I am finally starting to feel comfortable with my CW. There has been a time or two I have been ready to chuck my CW out a 3rd floor window but I am so glad I persevered. It is an amazing tool.
    Thank You.

    I agree. CW cannot touch detail of the laser. I have a ULS ILS series with dual cartridges 135 watts total and 24"x48" table size. It's a MONSTER! I have done some really wonderfully detailed items that I cannot post pictures. Memorial items for a man my wife works with that where taking a large glass picture frame glass and painting it black them lasering a picture and memorial wording on. Connie's suggestion hit my funny bone. as I just spent over $1500 on software and hardware in the last month or so on my CW machine. I already have the laser to embellish my project with. The HPDFO lens I have as a spot size of 0.0015" and the 2" lens about 0.005" I think.
    I thought it pretty cool to be able to take both machines and combine them to produce something that neither one could do alone. I can engrave, but cannot accurately control the depth doing deep engraving as the CW can do. Just seems nature to use the laser for the final details.
    I have spent hundreds of hours with my laser and Corel Draw and have much to learn still. Machinery just amazes me with the things that we can do with them.

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ID:	75334 that's a 6" metal duct for exhaust for the laser you see in the corner behind it. We had to take this apart to get it through the door into the shop.
    A Series machine purchased in 2007
    had 30 minutes running time up till 2-13-15

    Ring Neck Blues DC Insert (outstanding job keeping machine clean!), HF DC blower
    Designer 3.102, Pattern Editor, Pattern Sculptor, STL Importer, Scanning Probe, 2D Vector Drawing Suite, 3D Pattern Modeling Suite, Centerline text, Conforming Vectors, CarveTight Chuck, Decorative Bit set
    Universal Laser ILS series laser engraver with dual laser cartridges 135 watts total with 24" x 48" table and Class 4 module

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    2,877

    Default

    lol. You are right. It is a monster. I'll go now with my little 35W toy and play in the corner.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Bryan, Ohio
    Posts
    361

    Default

    I really like the idea of using both laser and cnc carver, I would love to have a laser someday and also a cnc plasma table. Great work, keep us posted on any new projects.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Shreveport, Louisiana
    Posts
    386

    Default

    What a really great Anniversary Gift that your wife will cherish for years. It truly shows what patience you have and the length you will go to achieve such greatness. I also believe in using all available resources to achieve things that can't be done with one piece of equipment.

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