Cutting both sides of your material with the X-Carve

I have recently ordered the 500mm X-Carve. As I wait for it to arrive, I was hoping to ask a question to the community.

What is feasibility or difficulty of cutting both sides of your material? Many of my thoughts for projects include doing this, and I wonder just how difficult will it be.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks!

I typically use registration holes and a fixture. Just took this picture today:

It’s of a double sided carve. You can see more details about the specific project here:

https://discuss.inventables.com/t/tip-jar-bounty-500-claimed-by-sketch42-iphone-6-case/9122/34

I’ll see if I can find a few more examples and loop back around later.

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Yep, reference pins/screws and flip it over. Also useful to have a home reference point as well. Just remember which way you flipped and ensure second pass is the right way around, up, mirrored etc.

Just also think about if the first pass will affect the stability of the second.

One of the members here made a phone case by carving both sides, I’ll see if I can find it. EDIT - No need, he just did it for me before I posted :smile:

Cheers

Ian

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Nice work!

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VCarve has a demo project that cuts on both sides. It should work with the free demo version of the software if you want to try out

This may go against common practice but I set my 0,0 point in the center of the project. I mark both sides of the material for its center point, start one side which includes registration points, then flip and cut the second side.

Same here. I center to the bottom center point after marking both sides with a square.

If I’m working in Easel I just select all my shapes and make sure the center X is on zero and then the bottom left is on Y zero. (If that makes sense)

I also mill everything from a center point instead of bottom left.

Thank you all for your comments and advice.

Is there a benefit from referencing from a true center (or bottom center) versus bottom left?

I find it easiest to first create the registration holes and I put a tiny pock mark just below the bottom registration hole and close to the edge of the material. When carving these holes I start from bottom left.

It is hard to find the center center of both sides so, using the pock mark I can find the center bottom of the carve whether the material is centered or not. It is also easy to mark the bottom center of the flip side with a scribe and a square.

Hopefully the advantages of this are apparent, but if not, I can post pics.

If the faces and edges of the material are square, marking the center of each side is a snap.