What feature do I use to carve this truck out of wood?

I’m trying to carve this truck out of wood. Any suggestions on how I can do this? I want to carve the outline of the truck all the way thru the wood, but I want to leave the features and just carve those into the wood. I’m new at using Carbide Create. I’m sure this is probably fairly simple, but I haven’t used my machine enough yet to get used to it. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

The big thing is if you are actually cutting out, the narrowest portion of the design needs to be 10% greater than the diameter of the tool which you are using.

I’m still fairly new to this, but have done some similar projects.

First question is if you are planning to import that image, or are you going to buy the SVG? If you choose to import, you’ll need to spend a fair amount of time cleaning up the vectors, so it appears correctly and doesn’t include stray remnants, cutoff elements and wacky zigzags where the lines should be straight.

Unless you enjoy that and have the time to do it, you may just want to buy the SVG assuming it’s just a few dollars.

With the SVG file you can ungroup elements, like the outline, so you can create a contour path to cut it out. You may need to copy several intersecting elements, past it off to the side and edit it to remove any interior elements and leave just the outline. Then connect any gaps and join to make a single outline, add tabs and the contour toolpath that cuts to stock bottom. You can then place the new outline you created on top of your original image.

Probably obvious, but for the detail you want, the smaller tool will give you more, but will take longer to cut and depending on your endmill may not have the length of cut you need for your stock. Check the tools you have to make sure they will cut what you want on the size stock you plan to use.

You’ll want to experiment with the toolpaths and tool selections for the interior segments to make sure they produce the look you want. Reference the simulation and change the angle to make sure the depths etc are what you want.

I usually do the contour cutout last, unless I want a chamfer on the exterior contour, to make sure there is enough stability for the interior cuts that the tabs alone may not hold.

That’s my 2¢ of amateur advice. Hope it’s at least somewhat helpful. Good luck!

As you are new to the game, you will soon enough discover that part of the process lies in deciding how much detail is possible for any given operation. Obviously a 1/16 bit will give more detail than a 1/4, but have you thought about using a 60-degree V-bit to make the line? Or how a ball nose creates a different result from a flat bit?
Oh, the list goes on. Drawings look great on screen and paper, but carving two parallel lines with a small gap between them may well leave one large gap because the remaining piece is now unsupported.
On your project, do you want a negative or positive result? Meaning: do you want the white lines carved away or the white lines to be the result of carving? Do you want the text flat or raised above the truck? How thin will your material support or will the text simply break off?
You are on a good road, but there is no single solution.

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