I have just got the xcarve up and running completeing a couple easle projects . I now want to carve 3d ie a flower ,were do I start ? I am not an ‘it’ person far from it all this jargon is way over my hed can some one run me thru the system ?
The easiest way to start carving 3D designs is to look around online and find STL files. You can find lots of them on Ebay pretty cheap. Like this one or this one. There are tons of them all over,
After you have a usable STL file you will need some software that can create the toolpath that will provide the instructions to the X-Carve so it can carve it. This is where you will spend some real money. You can use Meshcam (about $250) or Vcarve desktop ($350) or you can get a copy of Fusion 360 for free (non comercial license) and spend a month leaning to use it.
So you create your toolpath (Gcode) with one of these programs and then you can use Easel to import the gcode and then you can carve it. Generally you will need to use two tools to get a decent result 1) a large ball nose bit like a .25 inch ball nose for the roughing pass and then a much smaller bit like a 1 mm tapered ballnose bit for the detail pass.
A typical 3D carving about 6 inches by 6 inches can take 3 or 4 hours to complete.
Then when it is finished you will need some scotch brite sanding wheels and maybe a few small wood files to clean it up and get all the fuzzies off of it. Then you can decide how you want to finish it. For me the finishing is the most difficult part to get right.
Carving a 3D object is by its nature a more difficult job than making a simple 2D cutout or even a sign. But the end result is worth it.
Edit -----------
I forgot to tell you that you can download the Vcarve desktop trial and carve the 3D Eagle that is included in the 3D clipart. It will not let you generate gcode for many projects in the trial version but it did allow gcode for the eagle to be created. So you can try your hand at a 3D carving without spending a penny! Except for the bits, if you don’t already have them.
This was the first 3D carving I made, I was very happy with it when I made it, now I look at it and see all the mistakes I made.
thankyou Allen ,I very much appreciate your help