Yeah, little paint bleed. It will take me a bit to get it all figured out.

With Vcarve pro I used the trace bitmap to get all my vectors. Then used the engraving toolpath. My weapon of choice was a v-bit 90deg .5" diameter and a 1/4' shank. I had the max cutting depth at .15", step over at .02", Spindle speed at 16,000, feed rate of 40"/min and plunge rate at 20"/min. I probably should have cranked up the speed but since this was only my third overall use of the machine, I was yes.. a little scared. lol My first cut using my CNC machine was to cut a circle using a CAD program that my brother has for his 3D printer. My second time using my CNC was on a test cut with one of the free trial software projects. I choose the Grocery list file. It turned out ok on some MDF. Then I downloaded the full version and I attempted the tree for my sister. I have lots to learn!
I would like to try doing a halftone of a picture using the drilled dots look. Do you know if that's even a option on vcarve pro? I think Aspire might be able to do it, but not 100%
Any tips and tricks to help me learn are welcome

Thanks for checking out my pics