V-Carving / Engraving

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I found very handy application for V-Carving and Engraving. Exporting SVG as well. If anyone interest. And FREE.
http://www.scorchworks.com/Fengrave/fengrave.html#download

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+1 for F-Engrave. I recently made the following with it.

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Awesome, looks fantastic.

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i played around a little with f-engrave but was a little confused by how it works. is each line and image on your carving a different toolpath or did you do the whole thing on one path?

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how did you do the border cut?

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I didn’t go deep inside yet, because I have Vcarve pro. But I know many people making money in sign business with this software. If you go back to site you downloaded, you’ll find pdf format user manual for.

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How did you do the black part? Did you use masking tape and paint?

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My software trail was quite different from “normal” CNC processes. I’m doing as much as I can with free software. For this plaque, I wanted to compose all of the field - letters and graphics - in one place. I’ve had PrintMaster for a long time for cards, posters, etc. I started by typing the name vertically, then added the other lettering. After that was composed, I found some basic graphics in PM to fill in the field. PM provides for saving in several formats, including bitmap.

F-Engrave imports bmp files and processes them for engraving or v-grooving. I gave it the parameters for a 1/2" v-bit and 1/4" cutting depth. FE generates the tool path, then you save the gcode. It also allows you to set one of nine points as the origin: Bottom left, center and right; Middle left center and right; Top left, center and right. I chose middle center for the origin of this item so I could mark the center point of the plaque and keep everything aligned.

I needed two different cuts to make the plaque: one for the frame and one for the field. I created the frame shape in SketchUp, then used the SketchUcam extension to generate gcode. The only origin available is bottom left.

For the wood, I chose some clear pine, but it could be any type of wood. I sanded it, cleaned it thoroughly and applied sign-makers vinyl mask to it. After securing the wood to my SO2, I ran the frame gcode first. When it was complete, I marked the center point, moved my spindle to that location and ran the field gcode. Then, I pulled the plaque off the cnc, cut through the tabs and sanded the edge smooth.

Next, I sprayed clear sealer over the entire plaque and let it dry. Then, I sprayed several coats of a very dark brown finish to the entire plaque. When the finish was dry, I removed the vinyl. I had to use some denatured alcohol to remove some residual adhesive from the plaque, then applied some clear sealer over the whole piece.

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ahh ok you made the text portion in another program and saved as a bmp then imported the bmp too f-engrave

i didnt think to try that. the text creation portion of f-engrave didnt seem to be useful

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I’ve done a desk name plate and a full page of text in FE. The limitation is having only one size of font at a time. It does well with what it does, but it’s not designed to be a full graphic editor.

I tried using InkScape, but found it much easier to do this plaque with PrintMaster.