ok, got it, thanks Phil!
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Phil your stuff looks great. You have inspired me,I spent a good portion of yesterday trying to get a clock face to work in Vcarve. I finally got it in there but the carve would take all the material from around the numbers and leave them raised. I have only used easel in the past so this will be a challenge.
I take a jpeg like this and import it into Aspire (should work the same in VCarve), then use the trace bitmap option.
The higher resolution the picture, the better. When I use trace bitmap, I keep tweaking the settings until I get it just the way I want it. I then use v-carve toolpath (I think I used a 45 degree v-bit) to cut the design into the wood. Hereâs how it turned out on a piece of oak:
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really nice jobs guys!
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I need to take the time to learn Inkscape and some of the other programs I see people mention. It sounds like it can make life a whole lot easier.
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these are all really nice.
I may have missed it above, but what kind of paint are you using to fill in the carves?
Wait, youâre centering the spindle on your clock mechanism hole?
I have been measuring and marking the bottom left corner of the pocket to be carved and then it go.
But centering the spindle on the clock mechanism hole would be a better bet.
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How are you centering on the hole yet accomplishing the full square? The only way I can imagine this happening is centering the pocket on 0,0 rather than the bottom left corner on 0,0. Did I just say what I should have done?
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DUDE. DUDE⌠#revelations
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@PhilJohnson I can open the png file in inkscape, but cannot get the file to save as dxf. When I do get it to save in DXF and try to open it in Fengrave it says âimage contains no design dataâ. I have watched the tutorial videos fro Fengrave, they do not really cover the exporting/saving a file part. I am lost
Well crap my bad, I didnât look at the drop down (for reasons unknown). 4 hours wasted. thanks Phil
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I watched most of all the tutorial videos, skipping thru some parts. F engrave looks like an incredible piece of software for free. Now back to finding stuff for the clock centers. I think I am going to try your wine one first,and go from there it will be the first try using UGS. Thanks again for the help and patience.
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Did you remove the bad lines from the header? Is this the print screens in the other thread?
Did you run the cleanup and save both the V bit clean up and the flat end mill clean up? not this far yet
Hey Phil, it went fairly well. Once i got USG to connect, I started the process and it was going along fine, so I went into the house real quick to grab something to munch on and apparently windows decided it wanted to install updates and reboot. I used a piece of scrap MDF I had laying around so it popped out the center on the 6 at the top. I was using a 30 degree bit. it only cut the two outside rings and the 60 at the top before it rebooted. All in all I think it was a success, I will pick up some other type of wood today and a give it a try, any suggestions on types of wood. It looked like you were using maybe 1/2" and leveling the face before your cut.
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Time to disable all automatic updates on the shop computer.
For the record, poplar is only a âhardwoodâ because the tree has leaves instead of needles. Although itâs characteristics make it nice for machining, for any sort of durable surface that will see wear and tear, itâs much too soft. Much like pine, you can easily nick it with a fingernail.
@PhilJohnson I donât understand how your using the template to help you cut out the clock. How do you know where the edge of the clock is relative to the template in easel? Do you use the same zero point from UGS?
That is what I kinda thought. Man I love the people on this board, everyone is so willing to help.thanks again Phil
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I said earlier that I thought you might be using 1/2 board but, sitting at work think about what I would rather be doing I think 1/2" might be to thin probably should use 3/4". Work getting in the way of hobbies.