Linoleum Stamp in PhotoVCarve?

[johnelle]

Trying to do a stamp with a picture of my daughter's cat. Material is standard speedball unmounted linoleum which machines fairly well in Vcarve.

I modeled it until it looked decent. Cut it with a 1/4"V 60 deg and all I got was a fuzzy mess. Had transparency on, so there is no pocket around the image.

Going to try again with a 1/16 ball and transparency off.

Anybody done this successfully? Different material? Different tooling?

[johnelle]

One thing has become clear. Need a fairly stiff material to make this work at all--working with poplar 1/4 sheets instead of linoleum.

Currently using the Invert/Transparency off for "pocketing" around the picture. 120% is too fine even for a sharp engraving bit. Next run dropping below 100%. Fortunately poplar is pretty cheap and easy to come by.