Vectric Customer

Thanks for all the Info !
Yes we can project onto a 3D Now:)
AND yes there is a Dome/Dish section in the clip art provided with VCP8
Think we'd have to either extend the cut beyond dome with the offset feature(NOT totally uniform though) OR create a boundary in "Modeling" and clear it first OR best so far for me is to create a perfect circle and then use preview to cut into Dome just enough at tab height to eliminate all visible ridges.
Because the "Dome" isn't PERFECTLY centered, I'd probably draw one half in a very small square area in material set-up and use the "center in material" rather than centering on design for everything, and THEN change my material set up and mirror.
THIS is just for others who are Lurking and NOT you!
That stepping over thing probably explains this weird mark on ALL my "Herd of Owls" I carved in lower left quadrant? It was bugging me as it's perfectly smooth(no"ridge"?), BUT it's visible.(hoping one of my pics shows it--Very faint and depends on light).
Thanks for giving me a place to look for it!
I did "discover" something interesting with rectangular "Owls". Had it set to "Machine beyond boundary" .01" in proto, and it started in center and then worked out from center by the stepover evenly which was GREAT as stepover was small and could use the Offset toolpath. BUT when I went to using EXACTLY the Owl boundary, THEN it started in the center again, BUT it started hopping around in the deep sections which was 2Xdiameter of bit
Swapped back to .01"beyond Boundary, and everything was Hunky Dory again.
Dad will just have to be satisfied with being "impressed" with "Owls" for the moment-Too darn Busy
Thanks again!
scott

CarveOne,
I suspect the lack of detail on your Mayan calendar yo-yo has more to due with wood grain than your machines resolution?
I tried a 2" Vcarve in acrylic and the detail is much better than the blurry photo shows....... I quit after nearly 20 minutes as my machine was only reaching 2-10 ipm. Could probably cut a 30" one by the time the small one finished.

P.S. After further testing...I've concluded a real golf ball makes a lousy yo-yo...... The ancient Egyptians (with alien help, of course) knew far more about physics than myself, with their stupid wooden disc and string......... Guess this means, no manufacturing and no user showcase presentation Plus the Chinese already make um

I'll leave the nice yo-yo's to you, they are very nice........ plus I might get kicked off the forum with all my nonsense

The owl and bark looks really good for such a small scale, to me anyway.

Having to sand something to make it go away is par for the course for me.

The second attempt at the Aztec Yo-Yo is in the Vcarve operation right now and is doing what I expected for deeper cuts. It started at 12:05 pm and should quit around 4 pm. Fingers crossed ...

CarveOne

You could be right Glenn, I am using the densest light color wood I can get. Still, it's porous and may never truly be crisp in details. Maybe better results can be had by soaking the dome in thinned clear lacquer and fully curing before doing the Vcarve toolpath.

CarveOne

That looks really good Glenn
CarveOne,
Have had Really noticeable improvement with a 50/50 thinned lacquer and just a light foam brush and thin coat/wait 30 minutes and cut.
Doesn't really need to soak, and a good wipe with denatured and finishes well (with Oils anyway) with no uneven soaking in as far as I can tell after 6 months of doing it, Just swapped to GF Woodturners Finish, but jury is still out on that one.
Lacquer cuts cleaner than thinned unwaxed shellac for me, and trying thinned CA was a DISASTER.
Fingers crossed:)
scott

The second Aztec calendar Yo-Yo using the SC50 carving liner is a little more prominent, but not enough to brag about. The V angle looks better with the 1550 cutter. For now I'll move on to making other Yo-Yo designs for kids in the family for a while.

CarveOne

Thanks for pushing the limit of the wood CarveOne!

CarveOne wrote:You could be right Glenn, I am using the densest light color wood I can get. Still, it's porous and may never truly be crisp in details. Maybe better results can be had by soaking the dome in thinned clear lacquer and fully curing before doing the Vcarve toolpath.

CarveOne

What wood are you using CarveOne? Not tried any of these, not enough hours in the day to try everything but I have been using some Lime & Hornbeam which seems to me to be really dense, carves very well & little if any clean up. Not sure if you get it over the pond, I buy it from a local sawmill.

Pushing the limits lets me know that I still need to try something else that probably won't work either. It's called CNC Insanity.

The wood is mildly curly rock hard maple. It cuts cleanly enough, but I think the cutters are at the limits of the calendar size that allows really good definition in any kind of wood.

I haven't seen any of those woods available here Martin, but I'll look them up to see if anyone imports it. Our US woodcraft suppliers may import some of it for the woodturners.

CarveOne

Martin,

Google searches doesn't show much available in the US for lime wood. There is an American hornbeam that grows in some parts of the US but not a lot of it is used for lumber because it typically isn't a large enough tree here. The European variety apparently gets larger.

CarveOne

I'm actually thinking that the bit I bought that was marked as Lime may not be lol, just read the description again & it says it is good for carving but it also says it is a light wood & the bit I have is quite dense & not that light, I have been told that both Lime & Hornbeam are very similar in appearance so it may be that this bit got mixed up with the hornbeam, I certainly can't tell the difference
The show room at the sawmill has racks full of wood with a price marked on them, may be that someone looking through has put a bit back in the wrong place.

Just a bit more info on both of them from Scottish Woods which is where I buy a lot of my wood from.

http://www.scottishwood.co.uk/hardwoods.htm

CarveOne,

I've bought some nice wood from Bell Forest Products...... the hand picked board photos are very accurate
The curly maple and yellow heart for the 2 cbg's, Mayan walnut (nice stuff) for jewelry boxes and other projects came from them as well as other hard maple, leopardwood and probably a couple I forgot.

Had some nice osage orange cut in VA,....... would have make a nice yo-yo, pretty darn hard too

Nice chart with hardness..... click on specie for hand picked selection, they seem low on most specie..... nice selection of Yellowheart
http://www.bellforestproducts.com/exotic-wood/

Glenn,

I bookmarked that site. The dense, heavier woods could kill the deal due to shipping charges though. I'll check them out soon. I normally buy from wood suppliers in Raleigh, NC where I can choose pieces first hand.

CarveOne

Here's a new design for my friend's daughter. The text characters near the center may be a bit faint. Will find out when I cut it. He tried to give me a real challenge for the software.

I used the circular array and the distortion tool. And a lot of trial and error. Aspire has no problem with creating it. (Of course) Read it in a clockwise direction starting from the left side.

CarveOne

As usual leave it to CarveOne to come up with something unique and really nice.. Dale