Need help splitting an mpc

[carrothers]

I carved a sample for the ladies and now they want a full size one. Its for a good cause and I just do this as a hobby. .I told them that I could do two 14 inches and then dove tail them to make it 28 inches wide by whatever to keep it in proportion. I got stuck trying to outline the pattern so it would cut out which I wanted to do before trying to split it. Can someone help me outline to cut it out and split it? Thanks in advance for the help. 77009

[fwharris]

You have to remember that the machine can only hold a 14.5" board and if you are cutting out the pattern you have to allow for side rails to hold up the compression rollers. With this in mind your end size might not be the full 28".

Attached is the bottom part for a start. The cut part I turned the inside into carve regions.

[DickB]

Nice pattern. I've done many such projects and I have a few tips. One is to leave 1" or so at the top and bottom of your boards so that the rollers maintain contact and no cutting/carving is done near the brass roller. This means you are limited to about 12" boards. I need to know if the actual cutout final project size can be 24" or must it be 28".

[aokweld101]

I have been doing something along the same thing as this for the last four weeks mine is posted under the big carve as I progressed I learned a lot, I hope this helps you. If it is wrong someone chime in, you won't offend me at all.

[carrothers]

This looks great...the 28 inch width is not fixed in stone...we can probably trim the pattern back to 13.0 and make it 26 in width...will shorten the length a little as well I would imagine. thanks so much for the help.

[carrothers]

Thats very clever...making three panels which actually will make the plaque 33 inches high and 50 inches long....I tried to add the cut out but didn't get it. any secrets to getting the CW to do the cut out. I outlined it and chose cut out in three 3/4 inch passes but didn't see it show up on the back side as I normally do.

[DickB]

If it were my project I would probably select Pierced and add manual tabs rather than use cutout. Cutout is going to cut to the edges of the board which you don't want to do. aokweld101 is using 1/2" rectangles on the board edges which is probably OK, but I would use wider if you have the room (and you do). To avoid waste you can use 1" strips temporarily fastened to your board. I generally choose my board dimensions to fit standard lumber widths e.g 11.25" plus 1" each edge. Also, when laying out the pattern and zero-depth rectangles, I make each piece overlap at the joint a fraction of an inch, then trim with a table saw after the machining for a perfect fit.

[aokweld101]

I redone kinda what DickB was saying but I couldn't get the pierce box to light up I could get the outline and cutout to work but few pieces had to be cutout separately DickB is there way to get the pierced mode up... I did the edges to .75 because of the center board.

[aokweld101]

Here are the files..

[aokweld101]

I was compelled to do this carve....My first name is Aubrey...

[DickB]

I simply selected the pattern and clicked pierced - Designer 3. carrothers what version of Designer are you using?

Looking more closely, I see the background behind the state of Texas is at the bottom of the pattern, so if Pierced is applied it will leave this area very deep and too thin - so thin that it would pierce the board in the interior of the pattern. I got what appears to be satisfactory results by outlining the pattern, making the outline a carve region, then selecting Pierced on the carve region (not the pattern). I also set the original pattern depth to .5 rather than .25 to give more contrast on such a large carving.

[aokweld101]

DickB, I did what you said, I didn't see the manual tabs light up, what is the reason ? I will say I'm still learning, after 2 3/4 years, remember the carveright add... just push and carve.. DickB.. THANK YOU !

[aokweld101]

DickB, do you use a feather since it's .5 deep ?

[aokweld101]

Thank you gentleman, I and carrothers thank you.. after 4 weeks of tweaking the pattern that I was working on (big carve) I understand it so much better you guys are great. This includes E.F. Hutton (Dan) when he talks you listen...:D

[carrothers]

I have 3.102. Tried tweaking to 41 length so it would fit a 48 inch board (since I'm going to use MDF) and West System but it distored everything so much that I will just rip off three 11.25 widths and chop at 53 inches. I noticed that you left the depth at .25...should I try and carve it deeper to get more contrast?

[aokweld101]

Yes, DickB has done this before and he had advised to leave it at .5 depth to leave more details in the carve. And if you use steveNelson carve you will have to put in manusl tabs, read his post.

[aokweld101]

I have been playing with this pattern and understand the offset and carve region, but I don't understand the deselecting of the four center pieces it looks as if it going to cut it out.

[bergerud]

Those seem like holes in the pattern. Why don't you just put, say, 0.5 depth carve regions over them to cover them up. (Or use the main outline at 0.5)

[aokweld101]

The main pattern is set at .5 depth I tried both settings that you suggested and still have it showing through look at the back on both drawings.... do you think there might be another solution ?

[bergerud]

This is what I was thinking. (I got rid of the extra stuff.)

[aokweld101]

Alright Dan, how did you get rid of the other stuff... (is it a secret)...lol

[bergerud]

All those little outlines were not needed. The main outline at 0.5 fills all the holes.

[aokweld101]

Thank you, Dan & SteveNeslson... I finnally got it .. something I don't use that often but is nice to know as matter of fact I havn't needed up to this point. But it's nice to know..