Any Input Appreciated (You Too, Doc!!)

[cnsranch]

I've read Doc's T&T re layered carvings, and understand the theory, but the attached is a little different from the one's addressed.

The idea here is to place 1/4" walnut fully over 1/2, or 3,4" poplar. Carve Region is set to .25", and the pattern is .25" also. I know that I need to carve below the glue line, but if I set the depths/heights differently, the pattern "stands proud" of the Carve Region.

So, if I plane the walnut to, say, .24", won't the machine carve to .25", getting rid of the glue line?

If that's right, is .01" enough to get rid of the line?

Finally, should the project be walnut over poplar, or vice versa - purely taste drives this question.

This will take about a week to carve, so I'd like you-all's input before I screw it up and light the fuse.

[Amonaug]

I would just make the carved region .26-.27, you get the same result as making the top layer just a tad thinner.

Personal opinion I think the darker wood would be under the lighter wood. But then that would also depend on where the sign will be hung. If it's hung on a light surface then the walnut should be on the bottom. If it's hung on a dark surface then reverse it.

[bjbethke]

I've read Doc's T&T re layered carvings, and understand the theory, but the attached is a little different from the one's addressed.

The idea here is to place 1/4" walnut fully over 1/2, or 3,4" poplar. Carve Region is set to .25", and the pattern is .25" also. I know that I need to carve below the glue line, but if I set the depths/heights differently, the pattern "stands proud" of the Carve Region.

So, if I plane the walnut to, say, .24", won't the machine carve to .25", getting rid of the glue line?

If that's right, is .01" enough to get rid of the line?

Finally, should the project be walnut over poplar, or vice versa - purely taste drives this question.

This will take about a week to carve, so I'd like you-all's input before I screw it up and light the fuse.

Cnsranch, I normally work with rough sawn lumber, straight off the saw mill. I make my base board and top board as separate boards, gluing up each to the correct size then plane each to a flat surface and glue the two boards together. (Work with 1" to 1.125’ thick rough stock most of the time.) If I want the top board to be .25" I would size that first than plane the carving board to size. It keeps everything even. I use walnut, maple or cedar most of the time. That type of wood is easy to find in Arkansas. I just purchased a Band Saw Mill, since I lost a lot of trees on my 10 acres during the last Ice storm two weeks ago, so I will also have a lot of pine, oak and hickory also, but it may take a year or two to dry that out.

I like the lighter wood as the top board.

[Eagle Hollow]

CNS,
I think either will look good so use your or your customer's preference. By the way, that's a nicely designed logo. I use a top piece at 0.25" and set depth at 0.27". That gets through to the bottom piece.

[cnsranch]

CNS,
that's a nicely designed logo.

Thanks, Jerry - I can't take credit for the Logo's design, it's the logo used in the business I'm in - national franchising company. I just imported the artwork and tweaked it in PE to look right.

That, I CAN take credit for

[DocWheeler]

cnsranch,

I almost addressed this to Mr. Member- I need to see if I can find your first name somewhere, but can not recall your including it anywhere.

Saw your post as I was leaving work and just now able to put in my two cents worth.

First, that is a huge sign for doing it as I would like to do it. What I described in the Dec T&T was my solution for getting the correct depth of the glue line in order to cut it away as precisely as possible. To do that, I tried to be as consistent as possible in keeping the "touch point" the same for the two MPC s that I used.

To use the technique I described, you would need to create a carve region about 12.45" X 42.2" X 0.242" deep which would take about 3.5 hours in draft or 4.75 hours in normal. Make sure that you have the machine find the surface on the border that will not get carved away. Cutting that area out with another bit would not leave a smooth enough surface (at least not with my machine). Then you would glue in some quarter-inch material to fill that cutout area.

And then making sure that you used the same place as a "touch-point" as you used when finding the surface for the first "carve" to do the final one.

The glued-in piece can be a little higher than the main board, but you might want to build up the left end with a layer of tape so that the roller pressure is still good after you carve away all of the higher material.

Since I don't know what colors are normally associated with the logo, I can't say what I would do. But the sign would allow for a third or fourth color if you wanted. The rectangle in the upper-left and the writing at the bottom (or even the upper wording) could be done with other woods to probably make it too busy - but a thought.


Good luck, that is way bigger than anything I've tried!

[cnsranch]

cnsranch,

I almost addressed this to Mr. Member- I need to see if I can find your first name somewhere, but can not recall your including it anywhere.

It's Jerry, Ken (lot's of us here )

FYI, here's a pic of the real logo - pretty simple from color perspective.

Not to be dense, but if the border is to be the came color as the logo, and the background the only different color, am I creating less work by simply laminating the two pieces together, and carving it all at once? I do understand your T&T, but I'm not getting the benefit in this project.

Again, I'm a little thick, your thinning me a little will help.

[DocWheeler]

Jerry,

There are a bunch of Kens here also, I was very surprised at that!

If you do as I described, the frame and Background will be the same color (like your picture), the advantage that I found is that I could hit the correct depth more easily, and the down-side was the added carve region that would add 3-5 hours for the project.

I would imagine that on a laminated board that size that the surface of the lower board would vary a bit. That is the sole advantage of the process I described since the CW/CC creates that lower surface itself.

I wish you luck no matter which way you do it. Having a uniform thickness of a lamination that big would seem pretty hard to do.

I am considering creating an mpc to carve only a very small region within an area that my main mpc carves to the depth where I expect to find the glue line. That way I can see if my guess/math was good - I was off quite a bit on the clock test that I had hoped to enter in Ike's contest.

[Digitalwoodshop]

I would do a test cut and try a few different settings on the same board. The Bit Flag is the key here and the touch test. I would make a sample board first. That way you get the glue lines right.

Great Idea

AL