So I bought myself a Shapeoko 5 pro after selling my 3XXL when I moved. I haven’t done much with the machine since getting it in January other then building a nice cabinet to sit it on. I’m pretty good at using it to cut 2D but still learning. Messed around with some inlay but plan on doing more of that until I can get consistent, good results. What I need to learn now for some project I want to start is 3D carving.
I want to be able to carve an image of a pineapple and an image of a palm tree on some doors I’m building for some outdoor furniture my wife asked me to build. Now if I can learn how to do this it will not only open up all new possibilities with my machine but my wife will now under stand why I spent all this money on this machine and stop reminding me of that fact. Probably also won’t care as much when I tell her I’m going in the garage.
I basically want to learn the steps involved, what software to use and what tooling I would need.
I tend to learn things best with step by step instruction that I can follow over and over until the whole process Is committed to memory.
I like to use Carbide Pro if possible since I figure I already know the free version so using Pro would have a shorter learning curve.
I don’t want to draw these images I prefer to buy them on line so I would need a source for that. From what I read over the years from reading this forum and others I should be able to buy a STL of the image I want, import it into a software like Pro then once it’s in the software I would need to learn how to create the tool paths that I could export to Carbide motion to do the actually cutting. Well that how I see it going in my mind.
So is there any tutorials or written, step by step direction I could get my hands on to learn this? Can anyone explain the process to me so I can know if the way I see it going down is correct?
3D carving is a lot of fun and not really hard to do. If you are going to go with CCPro here are the tutorials that should help. Depending on the size of the project a 1/4" or 1/8" Cutter for clearing and a ball nose for Finnishing should get you started.
Use your preferred search engine and search for the desired imagery — it may be necessary to add additional keywords such as “vector” or “black and white” or “public domain” or “line art”— eventually one will find something like to:
which are pixel images which may be traced and then the vectors used for 3D modeling.
Note that the 3D modeling parameters must be adjusted so that the model is within the stock — anything higher than that will be shown in red, either increase the stock thickness or reduce the height of the 3D Model.
