Textured plastic

[neeterxxi]

Has anyone who's carved acrylic every tried carving textured acrylic? What I'm thinking of doing is casting some polyurethane into a mold to create plastic sheets that have a textured surface, but I'm not sure if it will work with a Carvewright. Is it possible or will that affect how it's cut or measured or any of the machine's brains or innards? :confused:

Lenita

[neeterxxi]

Anybody have any ideas?

[ChrisAlb]

Probably not getting any responses because no one has tried it. I think as long as the texture isn't too rough or deep, it would probably work fine.

One thing I have done is carve in 3/4" clear acrylic. I can tell you that .200 deep on Optimal is maximum without putting too much load on the Y. I tried going .250 deep and had all kinds of Y issues with it.

I'd probably recommend no deeper than .150 - .175 to be safe and using Optimal for the slower feed rate.

[neeterxxi]

Thanks Chris, I appreciate it! Sounds like good sound advice. :mrgreen:

Lenita

[want2b]

When you say you want to cast a textured surface can we assume that the textured side will be the side that you'll be setting up to actually be carved, not a reverse back side carving. The only thing I see is making sure the carver finds the surface at the highest point you want. Depending on the length and where you place it there would be a need to have a flat surface(a sled? or continous poured edge or be sure you select a specific point for initial setup) to allow the carver to set the depth to match your desired top/bottom. If the edge was irregular in depth due to the casting the touch point when finding the surface could impact your result.
Not as experienced as most of the members, maybe they can chime in and let you know.
Keep carvin, Rick H.

[neeterxxi]

Actually both sides will be textured, but the pattern isn't so deep that I feel it would make a super huge impact. But the sled will probably help with whatever irregularities there are.

Thanks for the advice. :-D

Lenita

[jcorder]

Actually both sides will be textured, but the pattern isn't so deep that I feel it would make a super huge impact. But the sled will probably help with whatever irregularities there are.

Thanks for the advice. :-D

Lenita

Last fall I bought a cheap hard plastic cutting board at WalMart. It was sort of porus and rough on one side. I made a litho with it and it turned out just fine.

Good luck
Jeff

[ChrisAlb]

Last fall I bought a cheap hard plastic cutting board at WalMart. It was sort of porus and rough on one side. I made a litho with it and it turned out just fine.

Good luck
Jeff

Hey Jeff,

I'm sure you know this but some of the newer members may not so I thought a word of caution wouldn't hurt. Because you made a litho from it which are normally carved very shallow, you came away unscathed. Perhaps because it was a cutting board it was pretty darn hard.

The only "plastic" that should be used is cast acrylic. Plexi glass and other plastics have a much lower melting point and "could" cause some serious damage to the bits and or machine.

A long long time ago, in a basement far far away, I was watching everyone on the forum do these amazing lithos. I wanted try one so bad but didn't have the material. I DID have some plexi glass and so I thought since I'm only going .100" deep, what the heck...LOL BIG mistake! Since I knew it wasn't the "right stuff" I watched closely as it started. Man, as soon as that bit hit, the plexi glass melted and wrapped around the bit. I quickly hit STOP...LOL....http://forum.carvewright.com/images/icons/icon11.gif

So far, that's my experience trying lithos. Still haven't picked up any acrylic to try a real one.

[neeterxxi]

The only "plastic" that should be used is cast acrylic. Plexi glass and other plastics have a much lower melting point and "could" cause some serious damage to the bits and or machine.

Polyurethane will work too! That's what I'm going to make my textured sheet from.

Lenita

[jcorder]

Hey Jeff,

I'm sure you know this but some of the newer members may not so I thought a word of caution wouldn't hurt. Because you made a litho from it which are normally carved very shallow, you came away unscathed. Perhaps because it was a cutting board it was pretty darn hard.

The only "plastic" that should be used is cast acrylic. Plexi glass and other plastics have a much lower melting point and "could" cause some serious damage to the bits and or machine.

A long long time ago, in a basement far far away, I was watching everyone on the forum do these amazing lithos. I wanted try one so bad but didn't have the material. I DID have some plexi glass and so I thought since I'm only going .100" deep, what the heck...LOL BIG mistake! Since I knew it wasn't the "right stuff" I watched closely as it started. Man, as soon as that bit hit, the plexi glass melted and wrapped around the bit. I quickly hit STOP...LOL....http://forum.carvewright.com/images/icons/icon11.gif

So far, that's my experience trying lithos. Still haven't picked up any acrylic to try a real one.

Wow! Thanks for the info Chris, I was going to go and get another and try some more! Guess I will not do that.

[ChrisAlb]

Wow! Thanks for the info Chris, I was going to go and get another and try some more! Guess I will not do that.

Like I said Jeff, maybe you got lucky and found a plastic that's hard enough to work for lithos. If it worked for you and you saw no signs of trouble then I don't want to discourage you from doing it again.

I just didn't want any newer members reading this to think they could run out and buy any old plastic to carve. Who knows, you may have stumbled on another source for litho material?? I'd be interested in knowing what kind of plastic it is and how much you paid for what size.

Can you post a picture of the litho you carved from it? Love to see it...:)

[jcorder]

Like I said Jeff, maybe you got lucky and found a plastic that's hard enough to work for lithos. If it worked for you and you saw no signs of trouble then I don't want to discourage you from doing it again.

I just didn't want any newer members reading this to think they could run out and buy any old plastic to carve. Who knows, you may have stumbled on another source for litho material?? I'd be interested in knowing what kind of plastic it is and how much you paid for what size.

Can you post a picture of the litho you carved from it? Love to see it...:)

Chris,
you are one of the several folks here that I admire and trust your judgement, I am going to chalk the first one up to dumb luck, sure don't want to chance damage to the machine, I think I will stop on the cheap cutting boards while I am ahead! I have gave the litho to my step-mom right after dad passed away. I didn't take a picture but I will take one and post it. I need to get a photo of it anyway.

thanks for you help
Jeff

[ChrisAlb]

Chris,
you are one of the several folks here that I admire and trust your judgement, I am going to chalk the first one up to dumb luck, sure don't want to chance damage to the machine, I think I will stop on the cheap cutting boards while I am ahead! I have gave the litho to my step-mom right after dad passed away. I didn't take a picture but I will take one and post it. I need to get a photo of it anyway.

thanks for you help
Jeff

Anytime my friend and I'm sure sorry to hear about Dad. I'm sure your step mom was touched!

Thanks for the kind words...http://forum.carvewright.com/images/icons/icon11.gif

[jcorder]

Anytime my friend and I'm sure sorry to hear about Dad. I'm sure your step mom was touched!

Thanks for the kind words...http://forum.carvewright.com/images/icons/icon11.gif

thanks Chris and she was it was a cool picture of them

[jcorder]

oh wait...that was c:D:Dl!