Ridges, Winged Death's Head

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george.ducharme
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Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by george.ducharme »

Looking for ideas on replicating the carving technique in image 1 (Winged Death’s Head), taken from a 18th century New England gravestone. Specifically the ridges running down the middle of the "feathers".
Image 1.jpg
For starters, I had imported a sketch into VCarve Desktop for bitmap tracing (image 2), however VCarve is interpreting the raised ridges as spaces to be routed on my CNC machine.
Image 2.jpg
Image 3 illustrates this.
Image 3.jpg
How can I go about creating vectors which will smoothly shave away the “feathers” leaving the ridge? I am currently using VCarve Desktop. Would I need some other version of VCarve software to achieve this? Perhaps there is a simple technique I am failing to understand/use? I thought texture, however I don't want a terraced/step look. I want the bit to go below the surface of the XPS foam just slightly. Happy to share the file I have been using if it would be at all helpful.

All thoughts/advice are appreciated!

Thank you!

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martin54
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Re: Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by martin54 »

No you could do that with vcarve, you will need to edit the vectors though to get the look you want. Learning to use the drawing tools is always a good idea, bitmap traces (in any software) often don't give the results you are looking for. Learning to draw can take a bit of time but it is a skill well worth learning as it means you can re-create just about anything regardless of the bitmap quality. :lol: :lol:
You could work from the trace you have, you need to cut & rejoin the vectors so the parts you want raised are seperate from the parts you want carved. :lol:
Can be a little time consuming but a lot of design work is :lol: :lol:

Just had another look & not sure if this would work but worth a try, try putting another vector around the whole lot, it will reverse what is carved & what is not, it won't give you the exact look you want as it will raise everything that is now being carved but it might look OK to you. :lol: :lol:

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dealguy11
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Re: Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by dealguy11 »

If you set your vectors up differently you can do a "v-carve" but use a large ballnose bit for the tool instead of a v-carve tool. Not exactly the same, but with a little more work you could create vectors to incise the lines with a profile toolpath and a v-cutter. I used a 3/4" core box bit for this rendering.
Attachments
Deaths Head Vectors.JPG
Deaths head vcarve.JPG
Steve Godding
Not all who wander (or wonder) are lost

ger21
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Re: Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by ger21 »

You're trying to duplicate a 3D carving with 2D toolpaths. It's going to be difficult to get the exact same look.
Perhaps some combination of flutes my get you close? You'll probably need a combination of different toolpaths and tools.
Gerry - http://www.thecncwoodworker.com

george.ducharme
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Re: Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by george.ducharme »

Thank you all for your input, I truly appreciate it. I have done a fair share of tracing using the drawing tools, though not on this example. I finally had to see an example by this carver (William Mumford) in person to see what I was missing. Martin54, thanks for the encouragement!

Dealyguy11, what do you mean by setting up the vectors differently? Perhaps use Martin54’s idea of inverting the vectors so the “feathers” are carved and use the 3/4" core box bit you mention? That certainly is closer than the flat look I have going now.

Ger21, that was my fear. I wasn’t sure if VCarve Pro would do the trick. I don’t want to flip for Aspire since this is more for my own enjoyment (perhaps sell some locally for Halloween displays). Right now I use V-Carve/Engraving Toolpath, specifying a Flat Area Clearance Tool. I see what Flutes can provide. I have thought, would Vectric make this pattern for 3D use if I ask. Has anyone tried that?

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dealguy11
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Re: Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by dealguy11 »

I meant use vectors are similar to what you had originally, but don't include the outermost vector in the v-carve, and edit the rest so that the borders are much closer together, so that you get a more of a ridge and less of a raised flat. If you use a large ballnose for the v-carving you will get scallops with ridges between them. I think this will work better than fluting, because the tool will do a better job of creating the right shape for each feather. If you like, you can then do another v-carve, this time including the outer vector and using either a v-carve or a ball-nose cutter to try to incise lines between the feathers. I tried this, but didn't really like the outcome. It worked better with a smaller ballnose than with a v-bit.
Steve Godding
Not all who wander (or wonder) are lost

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martin54
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Re: Ridges, Winged Death's Head

Post by martin54 »

I don't know about vectric but there are people on the forum who will create a 3D model, Michael Mazalick is one I know of. No idea what he charges for this sort of thing.

https://carveddetails.com

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