Lithophane of a Gainsborough

[JLT]

Tried my hand at a lithophane (sometimes referred to as a "lithopane" on the forum), and was impressed with the results. Thanks to those on the forum for posting design and execution tips, because it came out great on the first try!

For those interested, I grabbed the image from the web, pulled it into GIMP, converted it to gray scale ("Image -> Mode -> Grayscale"), applied a blur to smooth it ("Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur..." with a blur radius of 2 pixels), and then inverted it ("Colors -> Invert").

Brought the image into CarveWright Designer (1.130), and applied a Depth of 0.185 and a Height of 400. Material was 0.25" thick "Poly Cutting Board" (brand name "Sabatier") from Lowes, 12" x 18".

When my wife saw it laying around, her first reaction was, "Huh, that's kinda interesting", until I told her she had to hold it to the light. Then she was taken aback, and totally amazed at the detail...

Jonathan Trent
Leondardtown, MD

[Kenm810]

A Great result on a first try, Reading the threads and posts on the CW Forum gives a good head start on a project like yours,
by adding and sharing your process and photos to the other tips and explanations,
we all gain and learn a little more of what these machines can do form the info contained here. http://www.carvewright.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[SandBuoy]

Very nice lithophane being your first or not. Can't see how you would improve very much on that one. Nice job and thanks for sharing

[SharonB]

Jonathan ... thanks for sharing your method. I have been wanting to do another lithophane but have a very hard time acquiring corian here in central Oregon. BUT...there is a Lowes not far from here that I'll be visiting on my next trip into town.
SharonB

[Rocky]

Looks great, Jonathan. One of these days I'll have to give lithophane a try.

I see where we are almost neighbors.

[JLT]

SharonB et al, I should probably also mention that, although the "Poly Cutting Board" (PCB) has a very uniform appearance on the exterior, there are little blobs of imperfections in its core that *might* be revealed when carved (ie, these minor imperfections could be carved out if in a light region of your image, or if in a dark region, still obscured by the exterior coating). I didn't notice this when I initially purchased it from Lowes, but even if I had, I would still have proceeded, as I was simply looking for some translucent material that I could experiment with.

Three other notes if you intend to proceed:

1) You'll need some white tape to cover the handle hole, as the hole is in the dead center and will confuse the machine when it goes to measure the length.

2) You'll need a sled or a seat board to raise the height of the PCB. I initially tried to put the PCB in the machine by itself, but when it came time to find the back edge of the PCB, the rollers would keep moving and eventually spit it out the front. After some research on the forum, it became apparent that the machine is looking to sense the release of pressure on the back roller before it starts to seek the edge. Since the PCB is only 0.25" thick, I believe the roller was not dropping enough (because it was near bottomed out to begin with) to indicate to begin looking for the back edge.

So, using three long strips of wide double sided tape, I taped the PCB to a piece of 12" x 18" luan, providing a total height of ~0.5", and then the machine was able to detect the back and front edges.

Bear in mind, too, that I layed out the image so that I stayed under the rollers, although when I went to carve, I selected to not stay under the rollers and trust my image placement. (After all, it was simply an experimental lithophane).

3) I used the 1/16" carving bit of course, and during the carve, rather than spitting out little shavings of the PCB like you see when carving wood, it would tend to curl back long shavings of the material, which would break free after a number of passes. You'll have to keep an eye on the carving (which is good practice anyway) and occasionally clear these long shavings out during the carve.

====== Edit on 2008-12-07 by JLT

4) After the carve, give extra attention to cleaning the Y and Z axis belts and their respective gears/pulleys, as some of the waste material will sit in the teeth. Also, I find that I have to rub my hand along the rollers, turning them along the way, to knock off all the shavings.

5) I then take the Poly Cutting Board to the table saw to trim it down. Because it's a plastic, it will partially melt the shavings as the saw cuts the edge. I knock off any lumps, and then sand out any burrs to a presentable edge. For anyone who has ever cut plexiglass on a table saw, you'll know what I'm refering too, and the Poly Cutting Board behaves in a similar fashion.

======

Jonathan Trent
Leondardtown, MD

[Jvicaretti]

I'm hooked, I will be doing this as soon as I get my machine up and running.
Thank you for your great detailed directions.
Joanne

[JLT]

Rocky, salutations from across the Patuxent! Thanks for the encouraging words, although in all fairness, it's much more of a credit to the fine folks at LHR for providing an affordable carving machine and to Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) for his wonderful command of the paint brush!

Now I simply have to mull over how I wish to display it...


Jonathan Trent
Leonardtown MD

[drsprky]

Okay. Really old post. I hope you're still here. One question: That plastic doesn't gum up your bit?

[Ropdoc]

Awesome job. I would like to learn how to do that. I am curriuos about lamp Shades with that process.

[James RS]

Hello I actually can answer that question, I've used the cutting board material with no problems, i just finally got some corian. Much better


Okay. Really old post. I hope you're still here. One question: That plastic doesn't gum up your bit?

[JLT]

Okay. Really old post. I hope you're still here. One question: That plastic doesn't gum up your bit?

Might gum the bit up some (particularly on deep cuts), and leaves quite a bit of shavings. Note that it's not a Carvewright approved material for cutting / carving. That being said, I've found it useful for trial runs before I carve a $50 piece of corian. Per James' observation, Corian results in a much better product. See post http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?16341-Corian-or-Acrylic-Post-your-source-and-a-pic-if-you-have-a-project-completed&p=138744&highlight=#post138744 for a comparison...