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I tried to be diligent in keeping the wheels clean but I was doing other things in the shop. Before starting the cut, I cleaned the V wheels and rails then I put a dust shoe on the motor which kept most of the debris away from the rollers though. I didn’t run the vac because I would have gone nuts of listening to it for 4 hours so I just went over periodically and sucked up most of it and blew off the mechanicals with an air compressor now and then.
My carving started in the bottom right corner of the photo and cut at 45 degrees moving up to the top left corner. You may not be able to see it in the pics I posted but in the full size pics the lito is darker on the bottom right and where the lines start showing up it gets lighter indicating a deeper cut and does not go back to the darker. It just keeps getting progressivly lighter. You can see this especially in his shirt. It’s not extreem but it is noticable and needs to be corrected.
Does this forum not allow you to promote your PicSender software? If not, it’s a shame because it really does work. Best $14.95 I have spent in a long time!
I guess it’s hard to see the difference in the lightening in the photos. If your Z axis did not get real hot through the engraving process, you could try bumping the amps up slightly higher.
There is no problem promoting PicSender here. It’s users like you that spread the word and we thank you for that.
Nope, you did not hijack this thread, but we may have.
This may not be up you alley. When adjusting the z power I would start a 2 1/2 inch jog and then turn the pot. I found the low limit and then searched for and found the upper limit. Backing down from the upper limit I found a spot where the motor was “quiet” when idle. Increasing the power a little more I began to feel a very slight hum in the motor at idle but it was well below the power level that cause the motor to stutter. I backed it back down until the hum went away which was only about 1/8 turn up from the original position where I lost steps and ruined material. That is the level that I used to carve my last Lithophane. The Z stepper never got hot, or even noticably warm during the 4 hour cut. Think I coud bump it up just a tad more?
Had another project made for a friend. I made this one thicker (0.25") versus the 0.14" I used the past. I think it is my best one yet. I have had great success making these lithophanes with the Picengrave Pro 5 and the X-Carve. I used an ebay “BEST CARBIDE 2 FLUTE UNIV APPLICAT 1/32” DOUBLE END BALL NOSE STUB END MILL" which continues to work really well. I set the max depth as -0.15" and min at -0.02 as I think my cut depth for the 0.25" went deeper than the 0.25". In my first run I was seeing through the corian piece. So I reduced the max size. Unfortunately my cell phone camera does this project a complete injustice as can be seen with these photos. The bright lights on the litho picture is not actually on the project itself. I am not sure why my phone camera picked up a weird shiny spot there. The good news for me was the complete surprise and the continuous…‘how did you do that’ from the folks I gave this to and the party attendees that night. Thanks again X-Carve and Picengrave software folks!
Well here is my first completed Lithophane. It is not perfect by any means, but too time consuming to just throw away like some of the earlier experiments. The only issue is still had some problem with the z axis loosing steps when raising which caused the bit to cut just a tiny tiny bit deeper as the job went on. Unfortunately, this was undetectable while the machine was running and can only be seen when light is applied to the back. This was a 8" X 12" piece of corian. I’ve had a number of people ask “How much do you charge for that?” I hadn’t given that any thought. This Litho was made for my Mother. My Father passed away about a year ago and I thought she would like it… She loves it. Any suggestions on what a custom Lithophane should sell for?
My largest lithophane to date- 11"X14" frame with the litho cut at 9"X12". Cutting out the back of the corian to bring the remaining depth to 0.20" took about two hours with the 8mm ball nose bit using Easel. I used pretty conservative numbers in the speeds and depth of cut.
The actual cutting of the face piece was with a 60-Degree/90-Degree V-Groove Double Ended Solid Carbide Router Bit 1/4-Inch Shank (http://www.amazon.com/Yonico-14103q-60-Degree-90-Degree-V-Groove/dp/B00KZM1EOY). I used Picengrave Pro 5 as the software (settings in the pic).
The frame was bought at Michaels (on sale $10), (custom matting $14- not required but I wanted a bit thicker border for this picture)
I didn’t want to pay for the large Lithophane lights from Large LED Light Panels – Lithophane Lights though they make a very good product. I took a 1/8" thick clear acrylic and etched cross hatches across it with a 60 degree engraving bit (0.02" deep) and put an LED light strip around the edge, bought the plug and attached the switch.
This picture was pretty sensitive to my friend as the baby was in the hospital at the time and had the oxygen hoses across his face at the time. That can be seen in the picture so without the background info it looks like a mistake in the cut but it fit the picture pretty well.
Very good point. I should have added the corian. I don’t have a good source for it. I kept searching craigslist for months and found a guy who was closing down his counter top business. He had about 80 pieces of corian that I essentially paid about $2 each for. Looking at what they cost on the internet for the sizes I picked up, they would have cost around $20-30 each. Quite lucky in this case. I started my search for the corian at counter stop stores and was not getting very far. I was asking for their scraps. I then went to a Habitat for Humanity Restore and found an old sink and countertop for $5 that I was able to salvage about three large pieces from.
There are were several people that are selling Candlestone on eBay at fairly reasonable prices. From what I have carved so far it does appear that the Candlestone is a better material for lithophanes. I was able to purchase 10 pieces of 1/4 inch 8x10 for $35 (they were labeled as seconds, but I did not find any problems) and then 10 pieces of 5x7 for $37
I just did a quick look and the only listing I found was for a lithophane kit with three pieces of Candlestone. Even for the kit the price is fairly reasonable.
