Smaller Ball Nose Bit?

[BarryGilbert]

I just purchased Aspire today because of the things I need to do within this file. I am trying to fit this file onto a piece approximately 8x10. What type of bit do I need in order to have the surrounding text clean up better? I put in a 1/16 ball nose in order to have it look like this. Will it work to keep getting smaller or am I missing something? I have a tapered bit that reads 1.5mm and 4.82 Deg. Is that a better bit to use in this case?

[Adrian]

What Preview quality settings do you have set (on the toolpaths menu)? I would have expected better results than that preview.

Also what big have you set the material in relation to the model itself? With Aspire you should always have the material size as close to the model size as possible otherwise you're not making full use of the pixels available.

[BarryGilbert]

What Preview quality settings do you have set (on the toolpaths menu)? I would have expected better results than that preview.

Also what big have you set the material in relation to the model itself? With Aspire you should always have the material size as close to the model size as possible otherwise you're not making full use of the pixels available.

I had them set to standard. I also believe I had my bit size setup wrong too. When I rendered it over I have a much better look at it.

[adze_cnc]

This is a continuation of the thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31942

A smaller bit might help somewhat but it really depends on the fidelity of your original modelling.

Was the text for "The Military..." part of the original 3D model you imported into VCarve, in the previous thread, or was it something you added using VCarve's text entry tools?

[BarryGilbert]

I just highlighted the text and went into "Create Shape" and raised them up. Was that not the right way to do that? I did the same thing with the 09 also.

[adze_cnc]

I didn't see your revised preview image before posting, sorry.

Trying to judge what tool-paths that you've been using via the preview image alone is quite tricky. For example, the field that the "The Military..." is sitting on doesn't appear to have been done by a ball-end bit as it looks too flat.

Something to leave you thinking about. The tapered ball-end bit you mentioned might get more detail (how about creating a toolpath and running a preview to see?) but you'll loose the vertical walls that it cuts around.

[TReischl]

I just purchased Aspire today because of the things I need to do within this file. I am trying to fit this file onto a piece approximately 8x10. What type of bit do I need in order to have the surrounding text clean up better? I put in a 1/16 ball nose in order to have it look like this. Will it work to keep getting smaller or am I missing something? I have a tapered bit that reads 1.5mm and 4.82 Deg. Is that a better bit to use in this case?

Well a 1.5mm bit is .059 so it is not much smaller than a 1/16 bit, about .003 on the diameter, .0015 on the radius.

Bits are available on eBay that are .25mm radius (.5mm dia) which will produce sharper models. Carving is all about shadow lines. Bigger diameter bits create blurry shadow lines that cause the carving to disappear because what we see when we look at a carving are shadows and non shadow areas. That is why hand carved reliefs always look sharper and clearer than those done with a cnc router. The exception to that is when you use a straight bit to cut something like lettering, the bottom corner is dead sharp. While I am bloviating about hand carving. . . often we will actually undercut a carving to make that shadow line really pop.

Not saying that hand carving is better, it is just different. Quite often I will pick up my carving tools to enhance a cnc carved item. I am not one of those "one machine does it all" type of people.

[gkas]

Bits are available on eBay that are .25mm radius (.5mm dia) which will produce sharper models.

I really like this bit.. and a reasonable price @ $15.
JERRAY CNC Carving 4.82 Deg Tapered Angle Ball Tip Radius=0.5mm X 1/4" Shank Tungsten Solid Carbide HRC55 with TiAIN Coated Router Bits
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015C ... UTF8&psc=1

[BarryGilbert]

Bits are available on eBay that are .25mm radius (.5mm dia) which will produce sharper models.

I really like this bit.. and a reasonable price @ $15.
JERRAY CNC Carving 4.82 Deg Tapered Angle Ball Tip Radius=0.5mm X 1/4" Shank Tungsten Solid Carbide HRC55 with TiAIN Coated Router Bits
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015C ... UTF8&psc=1

Can you send me a screen shot of how you set that up in your "Bits"? I feel like some of my problem is that I am not entering the right numbers in the D A & R. Many thanks!

[BarryGilbert]

I just purchased Aspire today because of the things I need to do within this file. I am trying to fit this file onto a piece approximately 8x10. What type of bit do I need in order to have the surrounding text clean up better? I put in a 1/16 ball nose in order to have it look like this. Will it work to keep getting smaller or am I missing something? I have a tapered bit that reads 1.5mm and 4.82 Deg. Is that a better bit to use in this case?

Well a 1.5mm bit is .059 so it is not much smaller than a 1/16 bit, about .003 on the diameter, .0015 on the radius.

Bits are available on eBay that are .25mm radius (.5mm dia) which will produce sharper models. Carving is all about shadow lines. Bigger diameter bits create blurry shadow lines that cause the carving to disappear because what we see when we look at a carving are shadows and non shadow areas. That is why hand carved reliefs always look sharper and clearer than those done with a cnc router. The exception to that is when you use a straight bit to cut something like lettering, the bottom corner is dead sharp. While I am bloviating about hand carving. . . often we will actually undercut a carving to make that shadow line really pop.

Not saying that hand carving is better, it is just different. Quite often I will pick up my carving tools to enhance a cnc carved item. I am not one of those "one machine does it all" type of people.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me. It helps me to understand the larger part of this that I feel like I am missing. Unfortunately I feel like I am drinking from a fire hose and am just overwhelmed. Thank you for your help.

[gkas]

Bits are available on eBay that are .25mm radius (.5mm dia) which will produce sharper models.

I really like this bit.. and a reasonable price @ $15.
JERRAY CNC Carving 4.82 Deg Tapered Angle Ball Tip Radius=0.5mm X 1/4" Shank Tungsten Solid Carbide HRC55 with TiAIN Coated Router Bits
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015C ... UTF8&psc=1

Can you send me a screen shot of how you set that up in your "Bits"? I feel like some of my problem is that I am not entering the right numbers in the D A & R. Many thanks!

[BarryGilbert]

Thank you! I Ordered a couple of them. I should be able to try one out on Thursday.

[TReischl]

Another thing I have learned that I forgot to mention above was setting model thickness.

In Aspire the model view can look great because it is looking at the model itself. If that model has nice crisp corners it looks just great in the model view. But if the differences in height are not enough then in the cutting preview it may not look so good. The solution to that is to increase the the model height which will increase those shadow lines.

Oh, and one other thing as you have already noted, grain can really muddy up a carving but good. It pays to work with finer grain woods and/or woods that do not have a lot of difference of color in the grain. These days I am having a lot of luck working with construction pine that has been resawn and the faces glued together. This allows me to work with much greater thicknesses of wood which allows for much thicker models. Working with 3/4 thick lumber can be a challenge with some carvings, especially those with small lettering and lots of detail.

[BarryGilbert]

Another thing I have learned that I forgot to mention above was setting model thickness.

In Aspire the model view can look great because it is looking at the model itself. If that model has nice crisp corners it looks just great in the model view. But if the differences in height are not enough then in the cutting preview it may not look so good. The solution to that is to increase the the model height which will increase those shadow lines.

Oh, and one other thing as you have already noted, grain can really muddy up a carving but good. It pays to work with finer grain woods and/or woods that do not have a lot of difference of color in the grain. These days I am having a lot of luck working with construction pine that has been resawn and the faces glued together. This allows me to work with much greater thicknesses of wood which allows for much thicker models. Working with 3/4 thick lumber can be a challenge with some carvings, especially those with small lettering and lots of detail.

Yes Sir, I do a few test cuts to make sure before I cut the "good" stuff. Using this small bit is showing that step alone will take over 5 hours. Even after using a roughing bit. Looks like I have some tweaking to do before I even do the test cuts. Thanks for all of your insight.

[BarryGilbert]

Is there a common mistake anyone knows of that can cause the file being sent to my machine to cut everything twice? The rough cut took over two hours and when it started over it just ran in the same tracks without doing any noticeable work. The finish pass is clocking in at over 9 hours where Aspire estimates it taking only a little over 5. Can the estimate be off that far or did I tell it to do something wrong?