Wood Grain Texture Effects

[DEdwards]

I am finally on the forum, and love everything that you guys post on here. I am new to CNC and routing, as I started working for my uncle 2 months ago.
I am getting a firm grasp of everything really well because of the wonderful tutorials provided from vectric.

I do have one question though, my uncle and I are looking at starting to route wood grain effects on certain things instead of blasting them. I have done my research and looked up everything I possibly could to get as much information and I am still stumped a little bit.

With the texture turned into a component and smoothed out and all of that jazz we still get a route time of almost 8 hours on a 2x2. I have done tests on multiple bits and different speeds.
He is looking at getting a new machine later in the summer, is there any possibility that an old machine could take longer to route these details.

Everybody here does great work and thank you so much for helping me find something I want to do as a career.

Any information helps

-Devin BSG

[TReischl]

It would help if you posted the feedrate you are using for the 3D cutting.

There are other texture tools that are available and work very well, and much faster since there are no small stepovers.

The time does not surprise me at all if you are looking for fine detail and you are running your machine slow.

When I do 3D work I keep in mind that typically the tool is taking a .005 -.012 cut and usually not very deep. I run mine at least 250 IPM. But remember that if there is a lot of steep Z motion, it is difficult to actually get that speed.

I just ran a 3D 2 X 2 finish toolpath at 250 IPM, stepover was .01. Time was about 7 1/2 hours. Yup, doing 3D takes lots of time.

Give the texture tool a shot, play around with it, try different tool geometries.

[T.R.MacMunn]

Devin .... with the stepovers & the Z axis movement, it's hard to speed that up. much & have it still look "real". On a big sign, if you can do it with a .25" tapered ballnose, you'll more than double your speed . I hate sandblasting anymore as well, but I still have to. The CNC is awesome for cutting sandmask, though. A .125" 30*V-bit .......

[fixtureman]

A lot of it has to do with the direction of the cut If you cut with the grain of the wood it should be a lot faster as the z has less up and down moves, I helped someone out with this and his cut went from 6 hours to just over 3 ny changing the direction

[DEdwards]

Everyone Thank you for your help and responses, my uncle and I are going to be looking at all the different information given to me, and we will see where to go from there.

I believe we are going to do a test run and see how fast it goes, because aspire tell us one thing and then the preview on the computer before we run it is half the time and a lot more accurate.

He is looking at getting a few different bits and I will tell him those, as well with cutting with the grain.

You guys are amazing and thank you all very much

Devin BSG

[paulschultz]

http://www.signfoam.com/sandblasting.html

Scroll down to "Tips for adding a 'Grain Look' to signs" near the end. Material is Sign Foam. A friend of mine owns a sign company and uses this method/material. And THIS video shows how to use a wire brush on the Sign Foam to simulate wood grain.