Looking for some help on a Possible Project

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Fred Grover
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Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

Ok, I have a possible client/customer that wants me to do I am assuming a pocket for a plastic toy rifle and a horseshoe so he can mount/inlay it into the wood for a plaque. I am going to talk to him later this afternoon and see what he has and talk more of what he wants done. I will take some pictures of the items he wants to have done and know more if it is a pocket to hold them or not.

So, I am wondering if there is anyone who may or may not be able to help me in Aspire 9.5 to trace or figure out the best way to get those images in to do the pocket/inlay carved into the wood for a mounting option. Let me know if any of you can or would be willing to help me out and if it is going to cost and it is not to high of a cost as his budget is not the best as it is for his Grandkid then I can charge that amount back when I bill him. Thanks and I hope someone here is willing to help me or give me some advice on how to do this as I am new to this kind of job. Have a great day and you can email or message me on here or respond back here. I will be checking it later tonight. Thanks again.

Cheers and may God Bless.

Fred.

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TReischl
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by TReischl »

If it is a pocket there are a couple of ways to do it fairly easily.

A cell phone camera is really useful. Place whatever you are going to inlay in a convenient position. Then get the camera as square as you can to the item and take a pic.

Import that pic into Aspire. Trace the outline.

It can be even easier. If you can find the item on line and a good pic of it then you do not have to bother with a camera at all.

The next thing to do is cut a sample out of some thin material, like 1/4 mdf and see how you did and where you might want to adjust it. Once you have that done, you should be good to go on your finish piece.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

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highpockets
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by highpockets »

Ted has some great ideas that will work.

Another option would be to lay the toy rifle on a piece of paper and with a Sharpie trace around the rifle then take a picture. This would eliminate shadows and give you a nice sharp black like to trace. To help with scale you could also place a ruler on the paper when you take the picture.

An option for finishing the pockets would be to use Flocking Felt to give a felt look and feel to the pockets. Just a thought....
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Fred Grover
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

Thanks TReischl and highpockets. Those are some great ideas and I will have to give them a go. Not to good at tracing but hopefully can get close.

So, with the live edge piece of wood should I just take a picture of that and trace where the outline is of that ? I ask because I have never done anything with live edge and only used a rectangle or square for putting the design in that as my CNC Machine (CNC Pilot Pro 5050) and when I reference all home in Mach 3 it goes to the lower left hand corner if that makes sense. So not sure how to line the live edge up and place it so it will cut the design when I try or attempt to get it right in Aspire. I appreciate all the help and suggestions. He is coming out tomorrow with his live edge board and the rifle (Not a real one just a nice looking one from a hobby shop) and the two cutout pictures he has so I can scan those on my printer and just do an outline for those two pics to sit in a pocket. Then the rifle in the pocket. He is planning on putting some clear epoxy over the pictures and rifle inside the pockets.

Also, I have a 1/4 inch endmill that only has a cut depth of 1 inch and the rifle may be a little more than that. Say around 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 inch for the height of the rifle. Would that 1 inch endmill bit go that deep or is there a 2 inch endmill bit for the depth that I can get somewhere ?

Thanks for any and all help and I am excited to get this one done as it would bring me some business possibly my way if all goes well.

Cheers and may God Bless.

Fred.

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highpockets
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by highpockets »

First I'd layout all the pieces on the live edge slab. I'd then mark the lower left corner of each piece. I'd create separate jobs for each piece with the datum in the lower left corner and put the pocket vector as close to the lower left corner of the job as possible. Now you can set the XY zero to the corner of each piece being cutout in the live edge slab.

In Mach3 you can review the exact location of each piece before cutting to make sure you're happy with the positioning.

I hope this makes some since....
Crud idea with pieces laid out on slab.
Crud idea with pieces laid out on slab.
Image 361.png
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TReischl
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by TReischl »

Also it is a good idea to put a scale next to things when you take a picture. That way you can scale them up or down and then check that you are working at the correct scale.

Take a pic of the live edge slab while you are at it and use it in Aspire to position the items. Like John mentioned above.

Tracing things is no big deal. Especially something like you are doing. The idea is to work out any funny looking kinks or bumps that appear. A word of advice: LESS nodes are better. Most people overdo it. But not to worry, if you put in too many nodes it is easy to remove some of them.

BTW, this sounds like a really fun project. I have always wanted to play around with that clear epoxy stuff, now I am going to have to find some "artifacts" to embed in a live slab.
"If you see a good fight, get in it." Dr. Vernon Johns

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RobertD
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by RobertD »

Fred

Here is a link to lever action rifle vectors. They may help you in the design of the project. Sounds like a cool project.

https://clipartimage.com/clipart/16919- ... ipart.html

Bob

Fred Grover
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

Ok, I have taken pictures of this rifle against a white poster board and have the actual image of it and the traced out one on the white board. But, for the life of me I cannot get it correct to cut a pocket for it at 1 1/4 inch deep so it fits in correctly. Not sure if it is something I am doing wrong or not. I have uploaded two images to look at and if you need the dimensions of the rifle I can give you what was on the tag for them ? Anyone have any ideas of how I can get this traced and in a Vector format so I do not have to try and trace the outline or image and just bring it into Aspire 9.5 ? Thanks and I am hoping to get this one done.
This is just the rifle on the white poster board.
This is just the rifle on the white poster board.
If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. I would still have to trace out the live edge board but I think I can do that or should I say hope I can when I get the board.
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This is the rifle traced out on the white poster board.
This is the rifle traced out on the white poster board.

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highpockets
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by highpockets »

Your Sharpie outline is pretty rough so I took the picture, brought it into Paint.net, cropped the image down to just the rifle, converted it to Black&White, used the Magic Wand to remove the background. Saved the images and brought it into Aspire as a Bitmap. Selected the Trace Bitmap tool, Black&White Type of Trace, set the Threshold to Max, Corner Fit to 100% and Pixel Noise to 10. Clicked Preview then Apply. Tweaked a few vectors using Node Edit then using the Offset tool created a Outward Vector for pocket clearance.
Image 381.png
Image 382.png
Image 383.png
Image 384.png
Note: You didn't add a tape measure for scale in your picture. That will help to accurately size the image in Aspire.
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Fred Grover
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Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2016 5:06 am
Model of CNC Machine: CNC Pilot Pro 5050

Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

Thank again highpockets. So when I put the rulers or straight edge with ruler on the poster board with the gun should I just do it with one on the bottom and one on the right or left hand side ? What would be the best way to do that with the rulers ? Also, is there any type of large paper with rulers on it or Graph Poster Board that would make it a lot easier to measure. Tracing is not by best point as I have shaky hands and a little arthritis.

Let me know and thanks for your help and patience. Maybe we can hookup sometime in TeamViewer if you want to. Let me know on that and the question. Have a Blessed Day.

Fred

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highpockets
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by highpockets »

Fred, all you really need is a ruler along side the rifle (something like a yard stick). I have a 24"x36" Self Healing Cutting Board that has a grid pattern that I've used in the past. Put a pistol on it that I wanted a holster made, took several pictures and sent them off to a saddle maker friend. He was able to make a perfect fitting holster from the pictures.

When you pull the bitmap into Aspire draw a 1" square vector and resize the bitmap so that 1" on the ruler on the bitmap matches the 1" square vector.

Note: The picture needs to be taken as square to the rifle as possible.
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Fred Grover
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

Ok, so I got a traced image on a cutting board mat and the trace may not be the best as shaky hands and used a pencil and it did not wife off to easy. Not sure if this image is giving more information or not. Hard to get a good picture without some shadows with my lighting here in the shop. I for the life of me just cannot figure out the trace bitmap to make this work or not very good with just a mouse and my shaky hands to get a good accurate trace on this rifle image to have it to that correct size and open it up in Aspire to bring into my design for a pocket.

Let me know if this image would be any better or not. Thanks and if anyone can help with this trace to the correct size for doing an 1 1/8 inch pocket that would be great.
Attachments
This was what I did and if you zoom in on it it shows the lines better. Lighting here is not the best for getting a great picture. At least it is on a ruled Cutting Mat Board. Not sure if this helps or not.
This was what I did and if you zoom in on it it shows the lines better. Lighting here is not the best for getting a great picture. At least it is on a ruled Cutting Mat Board. Not sure if this helps or not.

Fred Grover
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

Ok here is a sort of or semi cleaned up image of the rifle trace on the cutting board mat. Not sure if this one works better or not for getting it to correct size. Shaky hands as I said on the trace around rifle and kind of confused on using the Vector Drawing Tools in Aspire. The bitmap trace option did not give me to good of results. I wish they had a video tutorial on doing something like this in lamens terms for old people like me who gets confused easily. Does this image help better or is it just as bad as the other one I posted. Thanks again. Fred.
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I hope this is a better image than the previous ones. I feel like an idiot sometimes when it comes to something that should be simple or easier for other people. Hope to get to a live training Users Group sometime in the future.
I hope this is a better image than the previous ones. I feel like an idiot sometimes when it comes to something that should be simple or easier for other people. Hope to get to a live training Users Group sometime in the future.

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highpockets
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Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by highpockets »

Fred, I'll try and be as tactful as I can.... Both traces are terrible!!! You need a very crisp and dark line to get a good trace. Putting the rifle on the grid and using several cheap lights from different angles then taking the picture for straight down should give the best results for bitmap tracing.

Attached is the tracing with Offset vector that should be close to scale based on your picture. You'll probably need to run a test run on the offset vector to make sure the rifle will fit before creating the pocket.

Get really failure with the Node Editing tool.
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Fred Grover
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Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2016 5:06 am
Model of CNC Machine: CNC Pilot Pro 5050

Re: Looking for some help on a Possible Project

Post by Fred Grover »

highpockets I truly appreciate your honesty and help and being tactful about it. I am going to have to practice more on tracing and do something different for my photo setup. Like I said with my arthritis and shakiness in my hands it is kind of hard to do a trace in the software or using a pencil. But, from what I am assuming you are advising is to just put any object/item I am wanting to trace on that Cutting Mat with rulers and get a good photo and try tracing the item from that instead of pencil tracing the item and a picture. Or possibly try a combination of both. I will definitely try a test pocket first for that rifle before I would wreck a nice slab of wood and that is some great advice.

I had a neck fusion and my lower back has been fused and it is giving me some nerve and muscle issues right now and that is why my hands are not that steady in doing the tracings. Hoping they can find out what is causing it and if it can be fixed soon. The lighting I can definitely work on and agree with you. If I get better and even if there is ho helping my issue I will still be practicing to learn the tracing better.

I am wondering when using the Vector Drawing Tools for example the Draw Line/Polyline, Arc and the Curve if they can be changed when doing the tracing if that is explained correctly or if you can only use one at a time ? If there is a way to change live when using these Drawing Tools is there a link to the shortcuts or a video to show that procedure. Once again I truly appreciate your patience and help with this not so intelligent and trying to learn man like myself. I appreciate everyone's help here and have a lot of respect for what all members try to do do to help each other as long as it it a civil way and not being rude to each other. Have a Blessed evening or at least it is here and thanks again highpockets.

Fred

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