New to Lithopanes

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stanbp64
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New to Lithopanes

Post by stanbp64 »

This may be a dumb question but....In the tutorials for carving lithopanes on .25 material it states to set carving depth at .1 and when machining set your z zero at -.08. Why not just zero on work piece top and have the carving depth set to .180?

If I am using .125" mat'l. and want to use just one pass and I want to leave approx. .025 -.030 mat'l, wouldn't I just set carving depth to .09 to .1 and carve?

Just a little confused.

Stan

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Xxray
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by Xxray »

For .25 I'd set it to cut .22 at the deepest, and that is cutting it close ... Very slim margins that demands a perfectly level table, perfectly consistent [thickness] material, and perfect setting of the Z. Especially dicey if there is a lot of white, and yes I have punched through and ruined them before.

Have never tried as thin as .125, really should use .25 if able. Not saying it is not possible, but almost no one uses stock that thin, and you are cutting already slim margins even slimmer.
Doug

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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by martin54 »

Just to add to what Xxray has said about 0.125 material, with it being so thin your images may look very washed out due to the amount of light that will penetrate the thicker areas. I've not made any lithophanes myself but have had problems with thin materials for other things. The other thing I have picked up from reading posts by others is that setting the z zero to the bottom of the material can be a good idea as stock material thicknesses can vary quite a bit so 0.25" material might not actually be 0.25"

If you set z zero from the top of the material & your stock is a bit less than 0.25" you risk cutting all the way through :lol: :lol: :lol:

stanbp64
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by stanbp64 »

Thanks guys!

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mtylerfl
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by mtylerfl »

Hi Stan,

For 0.25"-thick material (Corian), I don't normally carve any deeper than 0.170". This will help keep the lithophane less fragile and is still plenty deep enough to get excellent backlighting without areas of "blow out" brightness.

Below are photos of a rotary lithophane I carved with the CarveWright Rotary Jig for a presentation I made at a CarveWright Conference in 2014. The litho was carved on common 3" diameter PVC pipe with a wall thickness of 0.25". It is back-lit with a small LED puck light placed at the bottom of the base (the light is corded and touch-controlled for Low, High and Off).

The lit photo was taken with the LED on the High setting, but the item looks good on the Low setting too. (I could get a better in-focus photograph with it on High is all.)
Attachments
rotary_litho_parts.png
puck_light-from_Lowes.png
Unlit_Mona_Litho.png
Rotary_Litho_Mona-Lisa546x737.png
Michael Tyler

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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by LittleGreyMan »

As usual, very inventive and good work, Michael.

Did you design yourself the model or do we need to credit somebody if we engrave one? :D
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mtylerfl
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by mtylerfl »

LittleGreyMan wrote:As usual, very inventive and good work, Michael.

Did you design yourself the model or do we need to credit somebody if we engrave one? :D
Hi LGM,

The Mona Lisa is simply a photo of the painting that I modified slightly in a photo editing program. I guess the only person to give credit to will be Leonardo da Vinci!

If you don't have PhotoVCarve, there is a good video tutorial on the procedure in Aspire. Here is the link to that tutorial:

http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V8 ... s_GEN.html
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by LittleGreyMan »

Just kidding, Michael, thus the smiley.

!ʞɿow ƨ'obɿɒиoɘ⅃ bɘziиϱoɔɘɿ I ,ɘƨɿuoɔ ʇO
Best regards

Didier

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mtylerfl
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by mtylerfl »

Nice touch with the upside-down/backwards message!

(You've been reading too many da Vinci code books!) :D
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stanbp64
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by stanbp64 »

Michael, That is very impressive and great use of common mat'ls!

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mtylerfl
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by mtylerfl »

stanbp64 wrote:Michael, That is very impressive and great use of common mat'ls!
Thank you, Stan.
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stanbp64
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by stanbp64 »

Has anyone had any luck with .25 " clear acrylic or do you have to a colored mat'l?

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Xxray
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by Xxray »

Using clear IMO would defeat the purpose of a litho, which is to be backlighted to form an image purely using the depth of the material, ie thicker areas will be darker, thinner lighter. If its transparent then material thickness is not a factor.
On top of that, acrylic can be very difficult to machine cleanly - Solid surface is the way to go for lithos, even that not just any color will do. You want white or very light colored, the darker colors will not pass any light at all.
Doug

stanbp64
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Re: New to Lithopanes

Post by stanbp64 »

That's what I thought. Thanks

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