Help with split carve

[dehrlich]

Greetings all. Hope everyone is busy with Christmas orders as I am already. Here's one I need help with. I'm building a blanket chest for a customer. I have approval on the designs, not I just gotta figure out how to carve this lid. See attached MPC... The completed lid will need to be 24 x 34. How do I go about splitting this into two carves that will actually line up and look right?? Is there a tutorial on doing this somewhere? First time I have done one like this, so help is appreciated. Thanks!

LID.mpc

[bergerud]

Try this:

http://www.carvewright.com/assets/ti...icks_Jul09.pdf

[aokweld101]

I know there is nothing better than learning how to do it yourself. bergerud sent you in the right direction. I thought I would help you on the pattern.. I left 2"on the sides

[aokweld101]

move the W to 5.5 from the edge that way you will have the 3.5 to stay under the rollers and 2" in from the end of your pattern ...

[dehrlich]

Thank you guys, that really helps! This brings up a question though about board size. Now you indicate that you set the board size in the designer to include the extra needed to stay under the rollers. The way I have always done it is just set the board size to the actual size of the project, then the blank that I use has the extra needed to stay under the rollers. Am I doing it wrong? My understanding is that if your pattern says you need a board 12" long, the machine is going to expect a board 19" long. If I included that length in my design, would the machine not want a board 26" long?

[fwharris]

Greetings all. Hope everyone is busy with Christmas orders as I am already. Here's one I need help with. I'm building a blanket chest for a customer. I have approval on the designs, not I just gotta figure out how to carve this lid. See attached MPC... The completed lid will need to be 24 x 34. How do I go about splitting this into two carves that will actually line up and look right?? Is there a tutorial on doing this somewhere? First time I have done one like this, so help is appreciated. Thanks!

LID.mpc

Sitting and waiting for the "tiling" add on to be added to the software features. It was one of the features mentioned in the roll out of 2.0.

[bergerud]

You just answer NO to stay under the rollers. Then you are on your own. If the pattern is more than 3.5 inches from each end, the board will just naturally stay under the rollers.

If your pattern goes up to the ends of the virtual board in Designer, you will have to use a longer real board and choose center on board.

[chebytrk]

I guess there's several ways to do it and whatever is easier or more comfortable for you to remember. Personally, when I design a project (in Designer).... I know that I'm going to have to add inches to the actual board when it comes time to carve it. ... Hence, if I design a 12" board (in Designer), when I go out to the shop I get a 19" board to allow for the 3.5 on each side. Actually, about 1 yr ago I followed someone's advice on the forum and actually use a 4" space for each side of the board. This way I can't go wrong at all. All that being said.... this is what I do and have gotten used to. There are other ways to do it and that is to add that 3.5" to your project while creating it in Designer. This way it's done and you just prep a board to those exact dimensions that your CW pad asks for. Now..... others use a sled and that can actually be made much longer (like a standard 30" or what ever you decide). With this method you place your (12" board) in the center of the sled (make sure it's fixed so it doesn't move) and just center your project as you're going thru the process in getting ready to carve. You'll need to pay attention as the CW will let you know that your board is longer than what is needed for the 12" carve and will ask if you want to "cut to size" of which you would say NO. What would be important in this particular case is to make sure that you have it CENTER the project which would make sure it carves on the 12" board located in the center of the sled. Like I said, there's different methods to do it and some are better (or maybe easier) than others, but to me it's about whatever is easier for you (even if it means a few more steps in the process).
Thinking about all this as I'm putting this down it brings back one of those times (a few years ago) that I really was impressed with a way of sharing information on this forum. Years ago Jason Allen conducted a "Webinar" one evening after posting invites in the forum here for a few weeks. He said he did it all for free (setting it up) and about 5-6 of us (including ZZTop/Ringneck/Floyd Da Man!) met one evening on the web (of course different time zones since we were all in different places in the U.S). Some had PC cameras and some only had chat capability (me). Anyway Jason led the lesson for that evening and it was just a simple set up of a project using "arc" and carving region and a few other things. It was very cool because he was sharing his desk top with us as he did this in Designer and talked thru what he was doing. Almost like the tutorials that AskBud (God Bless him) did, but this was interactive where we could stop Jason and ask a question via chat or audio/camera and then continue on. To me this was another one of the many best things that I've seen happen on the forum here just because it was interactive and LIVE. I personally don't have the savvy to put something together like that, but I know the technology is there with all of our PCs and think if someone was to start something up like that again, it would benefit many many people... at the same time. LOL Imagine someone setting that back up again and for one event asking brother Tom Watson up in WA to step in and explain how he does "finishing techniques" or SharonB showing some "painting techniques" or others showing "blender techniques" or others in the way they do carvings, pattern creations, etc. We could create a something like a "Nationwide User Group" webinar. Maybe once a month having a "Maintenance/Troubleshooting" webinar sponsored by Obiewood Kanobie... Al WHO or others! Maybe have Joe or Chris or Lynn drop by to pass on some latest and greatest info on the CW. These Webinars might even be able to be recorded and saved so others could view them that are not able to attend a particular webinar. Hey, we have the technology we just need to make it happen and I'm sure many will jump on board. ... Maybe set up a survey here on the forum to see who wants it and who knows how to set it up? Again, just thinking out loud........... Nuff Said

[DickB]

Designer is going to complain when you upload aokweld101's mpcs because the carvings extend to the edge of the board. I recommend adding a long, narrow rectangular carve region of zero or .001 depth on top of the pattern to ensure good tracking under the rollers. I also recommend that you carve slightly more than exactly half of the pattern, then trim the boards with a table saw afterwards for exact pattern matchup. I regularly carve 22" x 44" lake maps, and this is my method. I fasten a 1" wide scrap piece to the board on the to-be carved edge to avoid waste. Same can be done on the end of the board.

There are different ways to do this, but I generally use sleds or add-ons as described, with 4" added to the ends and 1" top and bottom. I lay my project out much as you see it, making the project board 8" longer and 2" wider than the actual board, and centering the actual project on the virtual board. I draw lines or a rectangle to denote the actual board. The actual board is always smaller than the space in my sled, so I place it in the corner and select place on corner. Board measurement generally stops before the whole sled is measured, so this method is fastest.

[dehrlich]

Thanks for this tip. I had planned to do the mpc's myself anyway, both so I could learn to do it and because I want to make the corners bigger. I'm also going to build the body of the chest first so I can be sure of the lid size. I have found that sometimes you plan for something to be a certain size and then it ends up different... joy of woodworking right? I have to build a extra large box joint sled first to cut the joints... thank goodness I got lots of time. Appreciate everyone's input!

Designer is going to complain when you upload aokweld101's mpcs because the carvings extend to the edge of the board. I recommend adding a long, narrow rectangular carve region of zero or .001 depth on top of the pattern to ensure good tracking under the rollers. I also recommend that you carve slightly more than exactly half of the pattern, then trim the boards with a table saw afterwards for exact pattern matchup. I regularly carve 22" x 44" lake maps, and this is my method. I fasten a 1" wide scrap piece to the board on the to-be carved edge to avoid waste. Same can be done on the end of the board.

There are different ways to do this, but I generally use sleds or add-ons as described, with 4" added to the ends and 1" top and bottom. I lay my project out much as you see it, making the project board 8" longer and 2" wider than the actual board, and centering the actual project on the virtual board. I draw lines or a rectangle to denote the actual board. The actual board is always smaller than the space in my sled, so I place it in the corner and select place on corner. Board measurement generally stops before the whole sled is measured, so this method is fastest.