First Success with PhotoVCarve

[pblackburn]

I am new to CNC carving. I built a cnc router in order to save money on my cabinets that I need to build. The cost of building the cnc router and the materials for the cabinets was less than the cost of the bids I had from cabinet makers. Since I built it, I have not even got to start my cabinets but have been playing with learning PhotoVCarve and Aspire. I have to say the documentation included with Aspire is amazing but PhotoVCarve I find more of a trial and error program. You can say that my cnc router is just a hobby machine with one definite purpose. I use Mach3 for my controller.

This was my second attempt with PhotoVCarve. My first was with a 60° V carve bit but the result was unsatisfactory. I tried the 60° bit based on the tutorials but found the grooves to be too wide. Scrapped that piece and started over. I decided to use a Engraving bit instead. Amana tool #45771 30° bit with a 0.005" flat. This renders a good result. I used #2 common pine for this trial. I sealed the wood with Zinnser Sealcoat and filled in the grooves with black paint then top coated with Zar Ultra polyurethane. Total carve time was less than 30 minutes. The carve picture is before the top coat was applied.

[bullhead]

Try setting you line spacing to equal to or less the than bottom width of your engraging bit. It will probably be less than 100% so you will override the slider bar and type an amount in the box next to it. I start at 10% and work up. You will have to experiment with the depth. To finish i put coats of finish on first than use a cabinet glaze using a small paintbrush, qtips, rags, etc to get the shading where I want. Then apply two more coats of finish. Let it dry really well between each cat of every thing. Good luck and keep experimenting.

[pblackburn]

Will will give that a try