Guys,
My wife has asked me to make some egg trays for family but I am struggling to come up with a good way to do this - especially how to get egg shaped holes in a bit of wood.
Can someone please suggest a route to do this?
Thanks!
Here is one approach
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If you want contours, you’ll need to use some 3D software to create the contours and then 3D carve them with a ball end.
The one that Zach posted would just require a cutout with a size smaller than the egg so it holds it up. It’s a different take than the traditional egg tray.
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If you don’t have any CAD experience you could try Tinkercad and then use Kiri Moto or Meshmixer to make the gcode. Then you could import the gcode into Easel.
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Hey there to achieve the dished look in the top depending on how wide and deep they are you can use a form tool
I would go with a core box tool
in my current understanding of easel it would be a little hard to program and drilling cycle
but thats what you need to do basically do what they call peck drilling with that tool and that will give you your shape 
That’s a 1/2” shank tool which doesn’t fit on most Xcarves.
You could use a bowl bit:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000K2ADLY
You can pocket with it, I think, and get the shape.
That is not a 1/2" shank tool !!
also please note that I said depending on your size needed
Thanks guys, I was kind of hoping I could do a roughing cut stepped at decreasing radii and then a smoothing cut with a ball end cutter to smooth out the steps. I think I was naive in hoping that I could do a spiral cut to do the smoothing. I have seen and tried a fluting path in VCarve Pro which kind of worked but put a lot of strain on the bit as it was cutting all the way down in one pass - ouch!
Thanks to all of you for such rapid responses, I was expecting to wait a few days!
Just blowing the dust off the X-Carve as I have not used it for more than a year since having to work through a list of chores for the boss woman.
oh yeah well if you have v-carve pro then i would defiantly do what your talking about with the roughing and finishing pass
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You can manipulate the dome shapes included in Vcarve to get the effect you want. Then do a 3D roughing then a 3D finishing pass.
Couldn’t you model an egg-shaped contour in gray scale, then arrange the array and cutout with tabs and generate gcode from that?
oh yeah I might of misunderstood lol
are you asking how to make the 3D model of this so that you can carve it in v-carve?
If you give me all the measurements on the piece like a blueprint drawing I can model that in Fusion 360 and give you the stl or step file
I’ve wondered how Easel would process a gray scale image
What kind of tool diameter and tip radii do you have access to?
Hi Workinwoods
I just need to understand how to model this so if you are using Fusion 360 I assume I could do the same in Sketchup and then import the file to VCarve to then cut?
I have not used my machine for a year or so, so I am trying to throw myself back into it.
Maybe you could model it as you suggest and then I could view it to understand your approach?
This is a good idea of what I am trying to achieve.
Thanks
I have lots of bits and am happy to get what is required. Most are 6.35mm (1/4) shank
so I would have no idea how to do it in Sketchup I find that program really hard to use lol
anywhoo I mean basically I would start out with a solid rectangle the size of the entire part and then sketch the hole grid pattern on top
once I have that I would create a sphere with the same radius as the contoured pockets and place them over each hole in the grid
then lower the spheres to the proper depth into the solid rectangle and then use them as cutting tools to cut the pockets in the rectangle
then I would export out of fusion as stl and import into v-carve and set up all your toolpaths
does that make sense? like I said I am not sure how to do it in sketch-up
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@ErikJenkins what did you design that in?
Here is the quick and dirty screencast lol
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