Ceiling Medallion Material Question

Hi everyone,

I’m finally close to having my X-Carve assembly finished and am gearing up to start some projects. Sometime soon I’d like to carve a ceiling medallion to cover up a missing piece of plaster above a ceiling fan in my house. I have a couple questions for people with more carving experience.

First, will carving something like a ceiling medallion require software besides Easel (or even Easel Pro)? I believe it will from what I’ve read, but want to confirm. See the attached picture for an example of what I’m picturing.

Second, what material would be best for something like this? I think this is kind of dependent on my particular situation, but I’ll be covering a somewhat large missing piece of a plaster ceiling. Given that, I’m concerned going with a hard wood may be a bit heavy and could result in more damage to the ceiling over time. I’m considering using the Precision Board Plus, gluing together a few pieces to accommodate the size I’d need. Does anyone here have experience carving that, and do you think it would be a good choice in this situation? Also, how paintable is that product?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I was about to order some precision board but I figured I’d ask questions before spending the money on something that may not work for what I want to do.

Thank you,

Vincent ColomboCeilingMedallion

Please attach the picture

Oops, edited and attached. Thanks.

That’s just an example of what I’m looking to do, not necessarily that specific design.

I did one a while back in plaster, here is the link with all the info and pics

That’s interesting, I wouldn’t have considered that option. Was that caved using Easel or did you have to use different software?

No, easel doesn’t do 3D. I think I used meshcam or aspire for this.

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I bought a couple of medallion surrounds like that for my kitchen and dining room - they were made from plastic or foam, very lightweight.

You might do it with a sheet of expanded PVC.

To be specific, Easel can be used to carve this, but carve only. You would load Gcode into Easel for it to carve.

In order to design something like this, you would need something like Aspire or Fusion360 to create the design and output the Gcode.

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Actually to be more specific, you would really want to use Zbrush or Mudbox to design it :slight_smile:

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Maybe, but then you add the additional step of having to import the STL into something to create the gcode.

true

Where’s the fun in that!

I thought about doing one of these. Just not popular here as they do not put lights in the ceiling like other places.
MDF would work good.

Recommending Aspire (Uber Expensive) or Fusion (Steep learning curve) to a new user is kinda setting the poor fellow up for failure (My Opinion).

I’m sure the trial version of V-Carve and meshmixer would be less steep. I’m sure there are STLs of these kind of things on Thingiverse that can be manipulated through MeshMixer or such.
My advice to @VincentColombo… learn the ins and outs of the machine before taking on such a job…its not really difficult once you learn the processes, but jumping right into that kind of project will only cause frustration and disappointment…

I agree with @RobertCanning, purchase a cheap plastic one if you need it in a hurry… once you develop your understanding of the machine and software and processes, then if you’re still loving CNC Routing. THEN decide which software and material and processes are best for you and take the plunge…

First, the guy asked what programs he would need to make these. We answered him, we didn’t recommend he go out and jump in head first. What is he going to learn by jumping on Amazon and buying a finished product from China when he bought his machine for this purpose. Will he fail a hundred times probably, but he’ll learn something new each time and have a lot of fun with his new machine. It’s called a hobby or being a maker, give it a try.

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As far as precision plus board, i use a lot of it. it’s excellent but Extremely expensive. To give you an idea a 4x8 sheet runs $400 and up depending on what density you buy. Which is why in this situation I was experimenting with direct milling plaster and not having to make a mold. If I was you I would buy some squares of pink foam from the hardware store to practice on, it’s really cheap and cuts super easy.

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Thanks for all the feedback. I’m definitely not in a rush to get this ceiling medallion done, so I’ll spend some time with the machine before tackling that job. It seems like a fun project once I’m more familiar with the X-Carve.

-Vince