Carving out a carrier board

[carrothers]

I want to use the CW to carve out a .25 8X10 in some MDF to use as a carrier board to hold a piece of cornian. The default is the 1/8 carving bit which would take an hour and a half. There is a way to use the 3/8 flat bit; but I can't figure it out. Has anyone got the answer?

[Kenm810]

I've made and used sleds with .25" carved regions for Corian myself, and know this is not the answer your looking for,
but I've saved time on the cut motor by just adding some 1/4" x 3/4" or 1" strips as rails and some 1/4" filler stock
or just stripes masking tape stretched across the rails at the end of a carrier board for the board Sensor to see.
It works great, plus I can change the sizes as needed any time I want.

[mtylerfl]

I want to use the CW to carve out a .25 8X10 in some MDF to use as a carrier board to hold a piece of cornian. The default is the 1/8 carving bit which would take an hour and a half. There is a way to use the 3/8 flat bit; but I can't figure it out. Has anyone got the answer?

You could draw a rectangle, assign the 3/8" bit to a 1/4" depth inside the 8x10 perimeter, then draw a series of closely spaced lines, assign the 3/8" bit and 1/4" depth to the lines to hog out the material inside the rectangle. Just space the lines so the 3/8" bit will overlap slightly with each pass.

The inside corners of the rectangle will be rounded, but you can square them off with a small, sharp chisel after the carve is done.

[swhitney]

maybe the corners could be done something like this - corners are oversize drill holes to make board placement and retrieval easier. If the corner holes cause board sensor issues, they could be covered with masking tape.

[mtylerfl]

maybe the corners could be done something like this - corners are oversize drill holes to make board placement and retrieval easier. If the corner holes cause board sensor issues, they could be covered with masking tape.

Good point - a hole would allow you to pop out the board easily. You probably only need one hole though - right in the middle would be fine. No need for the four holes on the corners, and no problems with board measuring issues like you mentioned would happen with your setup.

[DocWheeler]

Let me add another reason for the four corner-holes, you can put in a piece of wood with square corners. Without these extra holes at the corners, the corners of the board have to be rounded to get it to fit. I have resorted to just carving short lines with the bit to remove the radius, but then, I usually use the 3/8 bit to cut the area out.

[roughcut]

The machine has a lot of on board manual features like squaring and etc. maybe the next generation CW could have a manual carve option. It would even make inline text better if you could carve out a region fasster.:)

[carrothers]

I will attach the mpc; but while it looks good it still defaults to the 1/16 carving bit. I want to use the larger 3/8 flat/straight bit. Help.

[swhitney]

I believe that because the recessed area is a "carve region" it defaults to the carving bit. In order to use any other bit, you would have to manually program a "back and forth" path to clear out the wood. So.... let the carve region do it's thing on a slightly smaller area, but then create a rectangle of eactly the correct size using a cutting bit to finish the inside edges of the rectangle. the result should be what you are after.....

i have added the file I tinkered with. I also set the cutting bit offset to half of the cutting bit width to get the correct outside of the area dimension. This example does not use the corner holes mentioned previously in this thread.

[mtylerfl]

I will attach the mpc; but while it looks good it still defaults to the 1/16 carving bit. I want to use the larger 3/8 flat/straight bit. Help.

All raster carving (patterns and carve regions) is performed with the 1/16" carving bit. (see Tips & Tricks - ISSUE 3 December 2007 "Handy Tips for Everyone!" (http://www.carvebuddy.com/PDFs/CW_TipsandTricks_Newsletters/CarveWrightTips&Tricks_Dec07.pdf) Page 4)


If you want to use the 3/8" bit, draw vectors (lines) that are spaced appropriately, assign the 3/8" bit and the desired depth. That way, the bit will simply cut along the lines and hog out the material for you. Use a small chisel to manually square-off the corner radius's of the inside of the rectangle. Easy and quick.

[HighTechOkie]

Here is project using the 3/8" straight bit to carve out a 8x10 region. Each line is 10 3/8" long (10" + bit diameter). This takes about 22min to carve. If you feel the need to clean up the ends that adds a couple more minutes to it.

As a carve region using the 1/16" carving bit, carve quality set to Draft, it will take about 34minutes. No need for higher quality since it is just a square recess.

You probably should update your Designer software also if you are showing a carve time of 1:30. Using Designer 1.132, I show a carve time of 1:08 at Best quality.

I have carved a sled for lithos out of MDF. Biggest waste of time. If your blank doesn't fit tight, it will slip and ruin your carve. Tape doesn't stick well to MDF after its been carved either. My suggestion would be to get a melamine shelf (tape sticks great to it and easy to clean any tape residue as it builds up). Do as Ken suggested and use 1/4" material to build the jig. You could tape/glue the 1/4" material to the shelf and use the CW to cutout an 8x10 square to expose the melamine underneath.

Rob

[Digitalwoodshop]

Good point about tape not sticking well to MDF...

Thanks,

AL

[mtylerfl]

I like Ken's suggestion the best as well.