I’ve been doing $25 painted and everything and am also lucky to get 1 a month. I know of some things holding me back but I haven’t had much luck getting interest.
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I just want to caution all of you guys, the machine is both easy and fun to use. Often the work is fun and we think it’s fast and easy to do (Oh I can knock that out on the X-Carve in no time at all!).
Too many of us, including me think of the work as “playing in the shop”. So we feel guilty charging a fair price for the work.
It is wonderful to have fun and make a little money too with your shop/hobby, but don’t undercut yourself. We all need to make sure we don’t undercut each other. Our work takes time, and skill, and we need to amortize not only the cost of the gear, but also the time we put in to learning how to use the software and maintain the machines.
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I agree on the “un-said” minimum so as to not collapse the market on those of us making money. It’s like being in the “drone” business all over again…
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Don’t want to hijack this thread too much, but when you guys are talking about painted signs, what kind of paint are you using? I’ve got an outdoor sign that needs painting, but for the background and the lettering. I wanted to use spray paint for the background and then paint the letters, but it’s hard to tell if the paints are compatible (oil vs latex). And the paint cans for Rustoleum enamel were available in very limited colors. I wanted a matte finish so the text wouldn’t be hard to read from glare. I ended up buying Rustoleum spray paints in the colors for the field and letters thinking maybe I could spray in the letter color, then mask off the letters and spray the field color over that, but trimming blue tape on the tops of the letters with an Xacto isn’t my idea of fun. This can’t be the way it’s done.
Paint your field color first, then after it’s well cured, mask the whole thing before you carve. Then do the carve and paint your fill color. This way you are letting the machine trim the masking tape for you. You may still have to do a little weeding (trimming bits of masking tape that were not cleanly cut by the machine).
WE use mostly Pine for our signs currently.
What do you use for masking? I have a hard time keeping any masks down.
I use clear packing tape. But we (my students) have also had success with “contact paper”. You do have to have a pretty good finish before you apply the mask, and you have to burnish it down pretty well or it just peels up. Best success has been with clear packing tape over Krylon.
The other thing we have been doing is to give the workpiece about six coats of water based poly, then carve letters or whatever, then paint with latex enamel. After the paint, sand and the latex enamel comes off the poly pretty quickly, then just recoat the whole thing with poly.
Next thing to try, which we have not done yet, is to paint the workpiece, then coat with poly, then carve and paint the carving with the idea that the poly will protect the paint.
Another thing we have done is to laminate different colors of wood…like a veneer of walnut over maple, then carve through the veneer to get contrasting colors.
Downcut spiral, but there’s more tricks to it that I have worked out, so let’s see if I can remember them. First, we are making our little signs on masonite tiles, and most of the kids prefer to just carefully paint with craft acrylics…they have steadier hands than I do…rather than fuss with the following process. I keep hoping one of the kids will really put some thought into and perfect the process but it hasn’t happened yet.
I start by painting the masonite with gray primer and then a couple of coats of Krylon or Rustoleum. It may be that one brand works better than the other, so room to experiment for sure. I make sure the paint is REALLY cured out, like at least over the weekend before laying down the masking film. Results are highly dependent on how careful the kids are and I’ve been thinking a clearcoat over the top of the paint might make it work even better. Main thing is that the paint has to be really dry or you mess up the finish when you pull it off, and masking tape peels up too easily from the trauma of the carving process.
I use the cheap dollar store packing tape and not the good 3m stuff.
Best results are with a downcut spiral endmill. Upcut tends to lift the tape and straight cut sort of melts the edges and leaves melted tape residue on the bit.
One other trick is to cheat on the z-axis home. I can’t remember exact numbers, but let’s say I am going for a finished engrave depth of .030. I’ll set the machine to cut passes of .020, but then when I set the z-axis home position, I’ll set the mill at .010 above the actual surface. I’m trying to just score the surface of the tape on the first pass.
I haven’t tried this other idea yet, which is to thickly coat the painted masonite with a couple of coats of gloss, oil based brushing lacquer before carving, then just painting the engraved letters with waterbased acrylic that will rub off of the lacquer with a damp sponge…maybe. I need more time to play with the machine…
JoesCNC is a set of plans, but if you’re handy they go together relatively easily and the support forums are great. Slightly less DIY is CncRouterParts.com - they sell kits that are more complete, but also more money. I built a Joes 4x4 hybrid for about $2500, including the new computer to run it, dust collector, etc. It’s a very capable machine, and you’d probably be able to use the X-Carve to cut parts for it, avoiding the need to buy the parts kit. (I cut my own too).
Find me on Facebook by my user name and I have a public album called “The Machine’s Big Brother” documenting the build, if you want an idea of what’s involved.
A CncRouterParts machine will cost you a fair bit more, but still less than a comparable Shopbot.