How to machine Lithophanes with PhotoVCarve

[Tony Mac]

The Lithophane shown below has been machined into a piece of Avonite (similar to Corian) using PhotoVCarve.

Lithophanes are photographs machined into translucent materials such as Avonite, Corian, Plexiglass, Perspex that when back lit turn into photo-realistic images as shown below.

Each of the designs below are 8" x 6" and cut into 1/4" material, and took approx. 4 hours to machine at 1" / sec.

A roughing toolpath was calculated for a 1/8" dia ball nose cutter to remove the excess material. Followed by a finishing toolpath for a 0.04" dia ball nose cutter that machined the full detail leaving around 0.04" on the botom face of the material.

The process is explained in the attached PDF file.

The Roughing toolpath is not needed when cutting material thinner than around 1/8" / 3mm.

Important - The Z0 origin is set at a different height into the material for each toolpath and the diagram below tries to show this.

Please read the PDF file and ensure you understand how to setup the toolpaths before running your machine!!

Let us know if you have any questions about cutting Lithophanes.

Tony

[Tony Mac]

The Video Tutorial below explains how to use PhotoVCarve for making Lithophanes

Video Tutorial


Here's a short video showing how the 3D lithophane turns into a photo-realistic image when back lit.

Video clip


Tony

[dman]

Holy Cow!
I have to try this one!!!! Tony, there is no coloring involved? Simple backlighting makes the picture stand out? WoW! This is awesome. On to ebay to look for corian!!
Damian

[Tony Mac]

Hi Damian,

That's right - no finishing / colouring!

Plexiglass will also work but can be a pain to cut.

Tony

[dman]

Does the corian have to be white? Would any color work? Does the corian cut like wood (not melting like plexiglas)?

[Tony Mac]

The white or lighter shades or Corian do work better.

It feels very hard and brittle but actually cuts very easily and simply turns to dust.

Tony

[Paul A]

Hi Tony

Thanks for the email......the Lithophanes are brilliant


Where did you get the small ball nose cutters from

Many thanks

Paul

[Tony Mac]

Hi Paul,

I'll try and find some suppliers.

You can also use Conical Tip Radius Cutters such as the one in the picture below.

Calculate the toolpath for the Ball nose but cut using the Conical Cutter.
There will be a very slight overcut but not noticeable in the actual piece.

Tony

[Bill_L]

Tony,

Can't find the supporting video that is mentioned on page 3 of the PDF tutorial. Can you help?

Bill

[Tony Mac]

Hi Bill,

The link to the Video Tutorial was missing so I've also included in my 2nd post above.

Let us know if you have any additional questions.


Tony

[boblee]

Hi Tony can you put up a video of the tutorial and the lighting that I can download and play at my liesure?
thanks Bob

[Tony Mac]

Hi Bob,

The zipped files can be downloaded from,

Download the Video Tutorial

Download the Video clip

Have Fun,

Tony

[Bill_L]

Tony,

While we're at it, can you run through the procedures you used to get the two photos positioned in frames with profiles and side by side?

Bill

[boblee]

Thanks Tony for the zip files those are nice looking lithophanes
Bob

[Wemme]

Hello Tony.
Very nice work, I am impressed by the detail!

Do you have a spec/Datasheet for corian so that I can try and acquire some locally I am unfamiliar with it and no one seems to know of it here.
Regards
Bart