Military Plaques

[Rcnewcomb]

First of all I have to say how great James Booth has been to work with. If you haven't done so you really need to have him do a custom design for you. You will NOT be disappointed!

This is a design that James has been helping us with. The customer was very pleased with the results so far. What surprised us was how nice this design worked on pine which we used just for a test cut. Once we threw some finish it really came to life.

I don't recall the rough pass settings but the finish pass was cut with an 1/8" bit and a 10% stepover at 6ips at 16000 RPM. The pieces were ready for finishing with minimal cleanup.

The dollar is there to provide a scale reference.

[GripUs]

Is this a file he has for sale??

By the way...looks GREAT! Good job.

Joe

[Rcnewcomb]

The basic design is available here:
http://www.vectorart3d.com/store/index. ... _50092.htm

The customer wanted some customization so we bought the basic designs and then paid James to do the customization.

Again, I cannot say enough good things about working with James on custom designs.

[JamesB]

Randall, that looks very nice!

The file is a combination of 2 of our 3D files - the emblem and the rope border. Once you have those then this setup can be done using VCarve Pro and our (free) VA3D Machinist software: http://www.vectorart3d.com/machinist_free. I will try and briefly describe the process:

1 For the Rope Border - use the A format (raised) in Machininst- set the size you want for the outer diameter of the plaque. Create a toolpaths and save this as a V3M (File - Save As...). Make a note of the Z-depth of the rope border.

2 Open VCarve Pro and set a part up slightly larger than the rope border size. Import the V3M file with the rope in it. You will see a greyscale and vector outlines around this.

3 Create a circle which will represent the middle part with the dished emblem in it. You can set the size of this so you can balance the area for text. Make a note of the diameter of the circle.

4 Create or import your text so it looks OK between the rope and the inner circle.

5 Back to VA3D Machinist - open the dished (B) style Emblem. Most important is to set the size to be the diameter of the middle circle you drew in VCP and then also when you set the Z depth to make the gap above equal to the Z depth of the rope border. That way it will be positioned correctly when you load it into VCP. Next create toolpaths on it and save the V3M file again.

6 Import the V3M of the emblem into VCP - centre it on your part so it co-incides with the circle you drew.

7 - The rest of the setup is in VCP. You may need to ungroup the 3D previews so you can use the vectors either side of them.

8 Create a pocket toolpath which cuts to the depth of the rope border inside of the inner edge of the rope

9 Create VCarve toolpaths for the text using a start depth equal to the Z-depth fo the rope

10 Finally you should just need a cut-out pass on the outside of the rope

This is not a very detailed description so please post questions if you have them. I will be covering this in detail at the User Group (in between everyone beating up on Jay). I also hope in the next month or so to create some more videos for our (soon to be re-vamped) website.

Cheers, James

[rbrague]

James we have purchased the rope and USMC dish models. We were trying to recreate what is shown here. All goes weell until we get to step 7 of the process. I cannot ungroup the 3d previews to use the vectors either side of the rope to carve the space between the emblem and the rope. Any help suggestions are appreciated. How do I ungroup vectors on the 3d rope? Also how can I select just a subset of the vectors on the rope?

Thanks
Rick

[JamesB]

I thought you could just select the grayscale preview and ungroup it to get the vectors from the edges but may be wrong (or it might have changed). There are two other methods though. First you can select the grayscale then go to the offset vectors command - offset outwards by a small amount say 0.01 inches - then select the new offset vectors and offset them inwards by 0.01inches so you end up with 2 vectors on the edge of the original grayscale. You might want to move some stuff around on layers to keep organized while doing this. The second method is to go to the website and download the free eps outline we offer for all our models - For the rope go to this page: http://www.vectorart3d.com/store/index. ... l&ID=50094 then clikc on the link under the first image which says Free EPS Outline - download this, import it into VCP and set the size to match your 3D toolpath and you will have matching outline vectors which you can use for your toolpath. All models on the site have these free outlines for download to help with this and laying out the job ahead of time.

Hope this helps, any questions please let me know?
Thanks,
James

[rbrague]

All those good things they have been saying about James is True.....

James thanks so very much for the reply. Your directions were perfect. Worked great!!!

Will post the results here when we finish..


Thanks again!!!

Rick

[mboydraska]

Nice looking plaque!

[Thkoutsidthebox]

Very very nice.

[radavis]

would you sell me one of them , I'm X Marine and would love one, I'll pay you to cut it and I will finish it.

Robert
Semper Fi
Freedom is not Free

First of all I have to say how great James Booth has been to work with. If you haven't done so you really need to have him do a custom design for you. You will NOT be disappointed!

This is a design that James has been helping us with. The customer was very pleased with the results so far. What surprised us was how nice this design worked on pine which we used just for a test cut. Once we threw some finish it really came to life.

I don't recall the rough pass settings but the finish pass was cut with an 1/8" bit and a 10% stepover at 6ips at 16000 RPM. The pieces were ready for finishing with minimal cleanup.

The dollar is there to provide a scale reference.

[RoutnAbout]

[quote="radavis"]would you sell me one of them , I'm X Marine and would love one, I'll pay you to cut it and I will finish it.

Robert
Semper Fi
Freedom is not Free


Welcome aboard JarHead and Semper Fi.

X Marine?? Once a Marine Always A Marine.
Where are you from Robert?
They do look nice, especially after Rcnewcomb's put his finishing touches on it. I need to take a few lessons from him.

psssst..Robert, becareful there is a ranger and one of those army gi joes hanging around here also