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dehrlich
11-20-2012, 05:32 PM
Wondering, when you set the carving depth on the pattern, is that to the deepest point or the shallowest point? I have this plan to laminate a piece of walnut onto spalted maple, then carve a flying eagle to have the eagle be walnut and the spalted maple be the sky, so the depth will be very important. May be a little ambitious for a newbie but what the heck! Thanks in advance.

Darren Ehrlich
D&M Woodworks
"If it's wood, we can build it!"
www.kansaswood.com (http://www.kansaswood.com)

lynnfrwd
11-20-2012, 05:45 PM
Depth is the bottom of the pattern.

dehrlich
11-20-2012, 07:05 PM
Ok. So now let me ask this... If I start carving like I described, and it isn't deep enough to expose the maple, can I adjust it mid stream, or do I have to start all over after adjusting it in the computer? Or another option, would it be better to do them in two pieces and glue the eagle in place after the back ground is carved?

fwharris
11-20-2012, 07:57 PM
Set your depth just below the thickness of your top board so that it will carve into the bottom board. You can if needed stop your carve and re do your design depth and start it over.

DocWheeler did a post on this a few years ago. I tried to find it but no luck...

gwhiz
11-20-2012, 08:16 PM
You'd need to start over after adjusting it...but realize that the 2nd carve won't exactly line up with the first--it's close, but there's always a line that needs to be sanded. The other thing that may help is that in Designer it shows you the depth wherever the cursor is (in the lower left of the window), so if you know the thickness of the maple, by moving the cursor around you should be able to tell where the maple will be exposed.

unitedcases
11-21-2012, 07:18 AM
At times I have adjusted it midstroke by cranking the handle down just a tad. And I mean just a tad. I have a pattern that always has a very minute box around the carving. So I sort of overcrank down in the beginning then once it starts to carve I adjust the crank handle up very slightly until the box goes away. I hope that makes sense. I should probably just get a pro to look at the pattern but I figured it works so why bother. I hope that helps.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

DickB
11-21-2012, 09:29 AM
You should also consider running a small test carve on a scrap of the same laminated material with various depths to choose the best one.

I've used this technique a few times. It depends upon the pattern, but I'd say it's generally better to laminate then carve.