With LED backlighting…
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Winner winner…
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How long did it take with the 1.5 mm bIt?
This one is smaller then the ship, 5" x 3.5", it took just a little over 2 hours.
I think I’ve gotten the speeds and feeds down to what works very well with the lithophanes (for me anyway). Using either the 0.75 mm or the 0.5 mm radius ballnose cutting at 65 IPM with a plunge rate of 30 gives me the best results. Here is the latest, this one was 500k lines of g-code and took 4 hours and 45 minutes to cut with the 0.5 mm bit. Size in a 5" x 7" piece of candlestone was cut at 4.5" x 6.5" leaving a 1/4" border all the way around. My photo taking skills do not do this justice, it looks much better in person.
The image I used from the internet:
Unlit:
LED Backlit:
Incandescent backlight (this picture is not good, I couldn’t get a good shot of it):
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How thick is the material for the light and dark areas?
The image is a total of 0.12" thick with 0.04" material under the image. The candlestone is 0.25" thick. I am cutting these all in 1 pass.
Do you think using 2 bits would cut much time off? It seems like .210" is a bit much to take off with a .5mm bit and would take a while.
If you ever make a video of the process you use to convert the picture from raw to G-Code, I’d love to see it. I’m sure there’s plenty of YouTube tutorials, but I prefer watching videos from people that I can talk to and ask questions.
I’ve tried pocketing out most of the material first, but it saves no time. The candlestone cuts very easily, so removing 0.21" of material is no issue for the tapered ballnose (tapered ballnose bits are much more durable then straight bits).
I may put something together…let me see what I can do with free software so it will work for anyone.
I’ll have to look into the tapered ballnose bits, this seems like something that would really be a hit. And I’ve got Fusion 360, in case you’re frisky enough to make the video for that. 
wow awesome work just went through the entire thread. I’m just starting in the cnc process and will start with easel but hope in do time to progress to this level. Nicely done any tips for a beginner?
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Keep the machine clean, with everything nice and tight. There are some great people on the forums with a lot of knowledge, if you ever need help, just ask. There will be plenty of people to help.
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Yeah I’ve been endlessly going through the forums, just started assembly on my unit but waiting on a couple parts to come in for couple of the mods. Planning on adding a blower system for when I do some metal work, just need to learn the true cnc programming aspects so I can do work as clean as yours.
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Nice looking work table you have built, it will help a lot having something nice and study to work on.
Thanks, any tips on learning the programs like v carve or any others you suggest looking into? I mainly got it to do custom acrylic and metal work as I build custom computers but have since gotten interested in doing some wood work as well.
V-Carve is a great program, Vectric has great video tutorials on pretty much every aspect of the program. I definitely suggest watching the videos and following along. It helped me a lot.
V-Carve will not do much in the way of modelling, so you will have to use something else for and 3D wood carving. V-Carve will allow you to import 3D models and generate toolpaths, but the modelling must be done in something else. There are some great 3D models that you can buy that are ready to cut.
For custom acrylic work and computer mods, v-carve should be all you need.
It’s a lot of fun, I am sure you will enjoy it.
Sounds good thanks for the info. You have any suggestions for 3d modeling programs?
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People have had great success with Fusion 360, and the price for hobbyists (free) is great.
Ill have to check them out. Looking forward to what you come up with next loving the litho photos gives me so many ideas if I can get to that point.
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