Photo V Carve Question

[TomGB]

I haven't upgraded to version 10 yet, but plan to, but have a question on the wood preparation before carving. In the tutorial I believe they said you may want to apply a light stain to darken the surface of a lighter wood so you get more definition. But this seems to be opposite of the way photo V carve works. The program makes deeper cuts for dark areas of the photo. If I've darkened the surface of the light colored wood with stain, but then cut deeper where the photo was dark, it appears I will be making the dark areas lighter by making more wood visible??? Straighten me out guys! Also any suggestions on best species of wood to use for this would be appreciated.

[ezurick]

Good questions... I'll be watching this thread for hopeful answers or suggestions. I haven't watched the videos on photo vcarve yet. But I think I will now. But I just discovered that the toolpath of it is added in V10. I tried my first photo yesterday on just plain pine, with the default settings that came with the upgrade and a 60 degree V bit and it came out terrible. I plan to experiment more.

[Adrian]

It's worth looking in the PhotoVCarve section of the forum. There is loads of information there plus lot of finished projects.

[FixitMike]

The stain should be applied after carving.

I coat the entire carving with a sealer or wipe-on poly after carving. Then add dark stain or paint. Wipe or sand off what sits on the original surface. What remains in the cut surfaces will appear darker, the wider the cut.

Or, if you omit the sealer, note that the cut areas expose end grain, which absorb more stain than than the surface will. Of course for this to happen, the raster angle needs to be at an angle to the grain. 45 degrees works well.

[TomGB]

Thanks Mike

[GDoneySr]

Has anyone photo v-carved with MDF? Was wondering how it turned out.
Thanks in advance.

Great quip on the judgement saying Mike!

[Jan.vanderlinden]

I just posted about my first photo V carving above.
I am having a horrible experience.
I tried to use MDF first, but I should have known better.
MDF is ok for simple signs, but for anything with fine detail, it just doesn't work.

[dealguy11]

Really depends a lot on the MDF. The stuff at the big box stores is not good for carving. It fluffs up badly once you break through the pressed surface. The fluff doesn't sand cleanly and also makes finishing a nightmare.

There are different MDF products that will carve cleanly and could most likely be used for Photo V-carving. This includes double or triple refined MDF, and products like Medex. Trupan is a brand name for double-refined. This material is mostly available through commercial wholesalers. Even these materials can have finishing issues, so they require a primer to seal the cut edges before they can be painted.