First, thanks for posting your process, good stuff.
Have you ever tried basswood? Really tight grain, stable, machines nicely. But you won’t get the sizes available in ply obviously.
I’d share the file, but the artwork isn’t my own. I did a screengrab of my settings though, should get you in the right direction:
And the cutout profile:
Ran the same settings in maple, walnut and cherry. Sealed well with Minwax spray poly before cutting and after painting.
Dan
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That is awesome Dan, thanks a lot! The settings is what I really wanted to see so that is perfect! Thanks for taking the time to help a newbie.
John
No problem at all, anytime. I’ve found that sealing the surface tends to harden it a bit and gives cleaner cuts during the v carve. I had several false starts and several pieces of wood that went into the trash before I got the process really repeatable. I also tried several different materials and the semi-gloss Minwax spray poly for sealing, then cheap acrylic craft paint for coloring was the easiest and cleanest. I tried spray paint, dyed epoxy with micro balloons, all sorts of different sealers, etcetera, etcetera. I probably spent 2 months getting the process right and then only 3-4 evenings actually making and finishing all of the ornaments, refrigerator magnets and a couple signs. I made a pretty good sized family crest for one of my neighbors using the same process on maple plywood. In all honesty though, my XXL did all of the cutting and my wife did most of the painting and such, haha!
Dan
I have some around here somewhere, like 1.5x1.5 or possibly 2x2" sticks not really something I’d carve but enough I could run a test. I know the stuff is popular for hand carving.
What do you use t seal it? Newbie here too.
I find that pine has to have a coat of sanding sealer on before you do anything or you do have problems with paint.
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Hey Dan. I’m a noob so be gentle. I see in your Home Position settings that X & Y are zero and Z is 0.80? I ran a job that caused my Z axis to slam to it’s upper limits then dig into my spoil board. I figured it was that 0.80 setting so I changed it to 0.20 and was able to run the job again without a problem. The question(s)…did you set that 0.80 or was that generated by VCarve? Is it possible that it was something else that made my machine do that?
I think that 0.80 is a default. I have also crashed my Z during retract which caused the machine to bury itself. Change to whatever value you want to clear clamps and such without crashing into the top.
Dan