Block Printing and the CW.... Interesting Concept...

[badbert]

I am pulling up a chair! That stuff is awesome to use as flooring. A little imagination... and a sharp knife. And I have seen floors that were works of art! Now I get to see art created with it!

[55president]

More on compostion vinyl tile -- Don't use any tile you might find in your atttic or basement -- pre 1986 tile
may contain asbestos! Buy the new stuff, Be safe......

[55president]

Image processing :

My image process starts with getting an image and sizing it to the size I want first.
If I want to carve a 12x12 inch image I will make the image 12x12. I also convert this to
128DPI ( dots or pixels per inch). The carvewright machine carves at 128 lines per inch.
I’m thinking this is because the carvewright CPU is a 128 bit processor? I then convert
the image into a high contrast image in Photoshop. This can be done in a variety of ways. I use a stamp filter in Photoshop. You are left with a black and white image,
no grey tones. Each color in photoshop corresponds with a number combination and a number(and or) letter combination.There seems to be a problem with the carvewright machine recognizing absolute black which is red:0 blue:0 Green:0 ,it’s number letter corresponds to 000000. Absolute white is red:255 Blue:255 Green:255 and his number letter corresponds to ffffff. I’m not sure what is the problem with black, maybe too many
0’s , but it will read white just fine and if you change the value of the black to red:1 blue:1 Green:1 ,and it’s number/letter will change automatically 010101. The white is
what the machine will carve, it’s supposed to leave the black , but more on this later....
I save this image as a JPG.

[55president]

Software process:

Now turning to the Carvewright designer software, I import this image into the pattern editor. If you saved @ 128 dpi it should be close to the size you are looking for. For carving depths I put no more than .09 inches. The vinyl tile is only .125 inches so that leaves .035 inches left which is a good base to hold it all together. I finish putting the image in my pattern editor. If I’m going to make a 12x12 inch block like the image I imported before from Photoshop, I’ll make a 12.25 x12.25 board. Or I’ll make a
12x12x6.25 inch board (1/2 inch plywood + .125 vinyl tile). After dragging the pattern from the pattern editor, I’ll resize it to 11.75x11.75. I’ll center it both ways: so it’s in the center of the board. I will set my carving parameters: no feathering , no draft, bit optimization usually on the higher settings, but it depends what you are carving. I’ll upload this to a card and I usually get the auto jig warning which I ignore. More
on this later......

[CNC Carver]

That looks great! Keep sharing please!!!

[55president]

I used to use 1/4 plywood and used a sled , but have gravitated to
using 1/2 inch plywood or MDF so I don’t use sleds anymore. I liked the 1/4 plywood as it was easier to store the blocks but can’t carve on a 3/8 board. Also
the 1/4 plywood sometimes has a tendency to warp as time goes by , especially if you use a water based ink for printing.So I start out cementing the vinyl on the plywood .I usually start out with a 12 x 48” piece of wood and laminate four pieces of 12 x 12 vinyl on top. I put a coat each on the wood and vinyl. Then after it dries I put another coat on each. I then carefully press the vinyl on the plywood. making sure there are no gaps.
I cut the board to the size I want and load it in the machine. I load my project from the card and it starts to measure the board and when it prompts me if I want to stay underneath the rollers I say no. I have a notched table and the carve wright sits down
in between the two table tops that extend 8 feet in each direction along a wall. The
table tops are even with the carvewright table. So If I am not underneath one roller it is still level in relation to the bit so there will be uneven carving. I go through the prompts
and start to carve .The vinyl residue is both dust and larger particles. My home made
Dust collector gets the dust but not most of the larger particles. So I’m still looking
for a better DC system. After carving is complete I wire brush the block with a
brass brush. THE vinyl usually get cloggedin the bottom Z-axis gear, so I use a
dental pick to get this out.Failure to so this usually end up with a Z-axis stall. So
at this point I have a block that’s ready to print
.

[55president]

here's some more blocks and a few have corresponding images.

[mtylerfl]

Those are really cool...I love the appearance of block printing. Looks like you've got it down to a science!

[badbert]

Those are really cool...I love the appearance of block printing. Looks like you've got it down to a science!

Yeah what he said! LOL That is really cool!

[lawrence]

man, that is AWESOME- thank you for sharing your technique with us

Lawrence