# First large 3D carving



## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

I'm making a birthday present for my daughter-in-law who is a wine connoisseur. It's my first large, 3D cut. It took waaaaay longer than I imagined. I was up at 2 AM checking on it! I did the final v-carve lettering this morning. Total cut time had to be 8 hours! All in all it turned out pretty good. I learned a few lessons along the way including rotating the entire project to line up with the layout of my CNC table. (There's gotta be a better way.) I made it from cypress which machines nicely but does leave a lot of fuzzies. I'll post a photo after finishing. I think I'm going to do more v-carving than 3D for a while. Whew!

Here is a photo as it was cutting the last of the lettering.


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Go you Jay!!!! Did you just use the clipart design as is, or did you play around with it adding and subtracting design pieces using our dear dear friends, vectors and nodes.

The crown I did was about 16 inches long and took right at 3 hours of actual cutting time. I think we can bump the inches per minute up a bit, but want to avoid splintering. The thing with 3d is you can't control the passes, just the ipm speed and bit size. I prefer a smaller bit, getting better detail, and taking a little more time.

It's the computer time that gets to me. But by the time I get one done, I've started over so many times it gets a little easier each restart.

You feel comfortable enough leaving it run while doing something else? Was the vacuum, in your opinion, worth the $400 extra?

Corafoam is being shipped today. Should have it next week sometime.

HJ

Cold beer, Tigers on the radio, making dust - great times


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

So the sign will go with a bottle of Boones Farm?


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

I used their basic layout but placed and layered the models myself. I cut the 3D stuff with a 1/8" ball nose end mill. It went on so long that I had to leave it for periods of time. I had to go to my grandson's baseball game and while at the game, we came under a thunderstorm watch so I was worried that we would lose power and my carving would be ruined. I got lucky and never had a loss of power. I may add a PC battery backup (UPS) for peace of mind.

I'm very pleased with the duct collector I got from Probotix. I highly recommend it. When I'm using the longer end mills some wood chips get underneath the brush but overall it gets the job done.

After looking at your Corafoam project, I'm thinking of using a thick piece of ridgid insulation foam for a test project. I know it's soft but it could be a cheap material for test cuts.


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

Mike said:


> So the sign will go with a bottle of Boones Farm?


I don't think I'd make it through the front door with a bottle of cheap wine! LOL!


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Jay,

Go to the big box store and get pieces of project foam. HD had 2' x 2' pieces for something like $5 - - that would give you an idea on how something would look before cutting into an expensive piece of material. The Corafoam is actually for finished work, and the price bears that out.

HJ


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

honesttjohn said:


> Jay,
> 
> Go to the big box store and get pieces of project foam. HD had 2' x 2' pieces for something like $5 - - that would give you an idea on how something would look before cutting into an expensive piece of material. The Corafoam is actually for finished work, and the price bears that out.
> 
> HJ


Thanks, HJ. I'm picking some up today!


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## 4DThinker (Feb 16, 2014)

And if you are cutting foam you can bump up your feed and plunge speeds. If you just want an idea of how the piece will look and don't care about the finish you can also increase the stepover of your finish bit. In other words, you should easily be able to cut the time in half for a foam test over the final wood version. 

4D


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

4D, When I ran the 3D finishing toolpath on this piece, it cut all the way through the material on the outside boundary. How do I prevent this? I don't see any cutting depth setting on that toolpath menu. I used double sided tape to hold it to the table surface because on the preview, I could see that it was going to cut through. The entire project was made from 3D models.

Jay


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## 4DThinker (Feb 16, 2014)

In cut3D there was a way to add tabs when cutting a 3D model. I haven't played around enough with 3D in Aspire to know if it has the same capability or not. A quick check as I write this doesn't find any. For the few projects I've helped students with so far we have also taped them down onto a larger scrap piece of 1/4" melamine skinned masonite that was then clamped to the table. 

4D


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## 4DThinker (Feb 16, 2014)

You can add tabs using a profile toolpath. If you can keep your 3D model from cutting all the way through, then you can finish the perimeter with a profile that does have tabs.


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

4DThinker said:


> You can add tabs using a profile toolpath. If you can keep your 3D model from cutting all the way through, then you can finish the perimeter with a profile that does have tabs.


I did a profile toolpath with tabs but didn't run it because the 3D toolpath cut through.


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## Shadowrider (Apr 1, 2015)

Looks good in the pic. Can we get one of the finished carving? Great piece of wood! Can't wait to get mine but it will likely be winter'ish.


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

Here is the finished carving. I stained it and gave it several coats of semi-gloss poly. I'll hand deliver it this week to my daughter-in-law in Seattle for her birthday.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Holy smoely that's nice....


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Jay,

If she doesn't like that, you got our permission to disown her!! lol

Way to go, my friend. Even 4D and Scottart should be a little bit impressed with that.

How much time on the layout compared to cutting??

HJ

You did spell all the words correctly I hope.


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## cjskelton (Feb 27, 2015)

I spelled them right. I just don't know how to pronounce oenophile. It means a lover or connoisseur of wine. Thanks for the compliments.


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Beautiful Jay congratulations, I'm sure she will love it.


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## Shadowrider (Apr 1, 2015)

That's an outstanding first effort!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

Very nice, well done


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## politicaldog (Aug 11, 2015)

Absolutely Stunning


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## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

look forward to seeing the finished piece. well done so far.


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