Lithopane in corian by a newbie

[Bob Victor]

A friend of mine who just retired from the fire department has ask me to make a litho pane of fire department logo. Although, I have not done carving on corian, I told him I would try. After reading as many posts I can, I still have some confusion. In no way do I disrespect the methods or opinions of those more EXPERINCED then me. My material is ½” corian. I’ve read most carvings are one with ¼”, but some have been successful with the ½”.
My first question is can corian be planed to the ¼” thickness?
If planing is not an option, it appears in the designer software, carve region will cut to the ¼” thickness, but all in one pass. I think that’s to much strain on the machine. Can carve region be set to multiple passes?
Then when I inserted the logo. It's not engraved, but carved as a raised carving. What did I miss?
The plan is to mount in a 5” x 7” light box.
Because corian is harder then wood, is there a material setting that would slow the feed rate in carving? I plan on using the optimum carve setting.I tried to attach a thumbnail, but it would not.

[blhutchens]

Bob,
you can plane, saw, rout corian. It may dull or curl your planer blades. I have not tried it so not sure.

I think you may have to do multiple carve regions setting them to the desired depth for each pass.

Brent

[fwharris]

As Butch stated you would need to do multiple carve regions (separate mpc/project files) to work the 1/2" corian down to 1/4". I think you would be better off to just get either corian or acrylic at 1/4".

Just in case you have not read/seen this tips n tricks on lithos http://www.carvewright.com/assets/tips/CarveWrightTips_and_Tricks_Jan09.pdf

[CW-HAL9000]

Most lithos are photographs and not graphic designed logos. You can do a logo and then you need to decide which parts of the logo you want to be the lighter areas. Once you import the logo you can invert it which will change the amount of light through the logo. Thinner areas will show lighter and thicker areas darker in shades. Lithos tend to be more vivid and better looking with photos rather than graphics but it can be done. I only have 1.87 but if you have 2.0 or later then there is a litho preview built in so you can see what it is going to look like.

[ktjwilliams]

I have carved corian in one pass ... I extended the feather so the cutter worked it's way into the piece slowly ... There are several other things I have done so the carves don't take hrs n hrs... Another thing I done was to make the square or rectangle and select a bit like the 90 V cut to make the border then set the carve region so the cutter starts carving in the groove from the V bit ...

[Canemaker]

Fist off, It would be very simple to go down to any Fire station in your town and take a close up picture of their emblem off of a fire truck for instance.
Then load into Designer... 1st problem solved.

Second don't waste your time using optimum setting... use normal...

I use normal on all my litho whether I use 1/4" or 1/2" and they seem to turn of well. Remember that depth is highly important and this is something you need to experiment with to get the ideal look. On some objects the 1/2 gives better depth of field. Attached is a litho carved into 1/2 corian.
7218772186
Hope this helps.

[Bob Victor]

Hi Canemaker, From all the suggestions, a photograph is the way to go. In your attachment, what did you do as far as a light source, if any? I will try this in the next couple of days. Thank you very much.

[Canemaker]

Actually, I purchase a flat panel led light off of ebay. However, when I presented it to my client it was placed in the kitchen window and provides enough sunlight to give an excellent viewing throughout the day.

[edsingletary]

What is the difference in carve 1 and 2. 1 looks like a photo. Is it painted or is it an actual photo.

[fwharris]

What is the difference in carve 1 and 2. 1 looks like a photo. Is it painted or is it an actual photo.

Photo 1 is back lighted and photo 2 is photo 1 with out the back light.

[Canemaker]

That is what everyone is calling the "WOW" factor with a lithophane. Which allows light to pass through turning a negative carving into a positive picture. Hence the difference in height causes different levels of light to pass through the corian material. Hope that helps. Not sure if the wording is correct aspect, but it does work.

[sunmiztres]

Fist off, It would be very simple to go down to any Fire station in your town and take a close up picture of their emblem off of a fire truck for instance.
Then load into Designer... 1st problem solved.

Second don't waste your time using optimum setting... use normal...

I use normal on all my litho whether I use 1/4" or 1/2" and they seem to turn of well. Remember that depth is highly important and this is something you need to experiment with to get the ideal look. On some objects the 1/2 gives better depth of field. Attached is a litho carved into 1/2 corian.
7218772186
Hope this helps.

Great job!!! I just got my hands on some corain 1/2" and am ready to try my hand at lithographs. Did you carve the Corain down to 1/4" in the images attached or was it just feathered at 1/4"? Thanks you for any info you can give. Again great job!