Newbie - v carve tip?

[juneknoel (June Noel)]

Hi guys! I’m super new to CNC and still learning the ropes… I’ve successfully cut some basic animal shapes and now hoping to add some basic lines so I can use them as a guide for painting. Check out my photos below… so what I’m hoping to accomplish is to carve/draw the lines on the cow’s face so I’m not having to carefully paint those lines.

In the second photo, I added those details but I don’t even know what bits to use and what to choose in Carbide Create. Any basic tip to get me started and try it out? Thanks so much!

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

For V-carving, remember you need closed regions to define where the V carving should happen — it’s best to nest them rather than overlap:

So if one wants to highlight this section of a circle:

It’s best to undo to the larger overlapping region:

Offset it to one side or the other (or both if the centering of the line is critical):

Then do Boolean intersection:

and then Boolean subtraction with the original circle as key object (indicated by dashed highlight):

Which when V carved affords:

[juneknoel (June Noel)]

Ok. Should I be using a 90 v bit or something else for the details? And any advice on how deep it needs to be as a start?

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

A 90 degree V endmill would be fine, a more acute one would do better with details, but would cut a bit deeper.

Usually for normal V carving one sets the depth limit to match the stock thickness and ensure that the widest feature to be carved is narrower than the endmill is wide…

[NathanS21 (Nathan)]

This may not be best practice, I’ve only just started with this stuff, but it’s possible to do a contour cut with a V-carve bit, which means you can use just use lines and set the width by setting how deep the cut it. I did this just as a test to see how flat my wasteboard was, and didn’t see any issues with it. I did have some oddities in my cut depth, but I think that was my fault and not the machine/cutting styles fault.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Yes, that works, but it doesn’t preview in 3D – it will be a bit more workable if you create a custom tool for each depth which you wish to cut to.

[juneknoel (June Noel)]

Awesome! Thanks guys! I’m gonna try the Contour first - good idea!

[baricl (Loren Baric)]

Toolpath 1-First I would use a #112 0.063 flat end mill or a 122# 0.031 flat end mill with a very shallow cut to trace the whole design. Use a shallow depth of cut, maybe 0.05. That will give you all your cut lines for painting.

Toolpath 2-Then do the second toolpath that you are currently using to cut out the design and release it.