# CNC can be distressing



## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

My friend Jim (Chessnut2) gave me a book titled “Cowboys and Indians - An Illustrated History” and I have been trying to think how I could use it for a project. Most of the illustrations would be too difficult to carve freehand. But now that I have a CNC …

So, I thought I would combine carving both the fine detail of a pen and ink drawing by my favorite western artist Frederick Remington and experimenting with creating a weathered wood grain effect.

Here are the results. As you can see, the CNC can take a perfectly nice piece of select pine and quickly turn it into a weathered piece of old wood. The wood grain is just vectors created in V Carve and cut with a 60º V bit. Actually, everything was carved with the same V bit with the exception of the cutting out the outline of the board with a 1/8” straight bit. The piece is 5" x 11"

I think the woodgrain has great potential for future projects.


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

Oh yeah, looks really nice.


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## billyjim (Feb 11, 2012)

That turned out great.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Sweet!!


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

That's really neat Oliver . I'm sure with your creativity and this new CNC , that we're going to be seeing some pretty interesting things comimg from you in the future. Not that we haven't already lol


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

What they all said Oliver.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

That looks great, Oliver! I need to venture into the 3D world with our CNC. Did you generate the 3D image or is that one from Vectric?

David


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## Shop guy (Nov 22, 2012)

Very nice, Oliver.


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

difalkner said:


> That looks great, Oliver! I need to venture into the 3D world with our CNC. Did you generate the 3D image or is that one from Vectric?
> 
> David


It is not a 3D image, David. It is only 2D or maybe it is 2.5D. I used V Carve's _*texture drawing tool* _to create the woodgrain-like vectors. If you used a _*Profile tool path*_ you would get a more subtle and general looking woodgrain effect. Instead, by using the _*Texturing Tool path*_ you can set variations in the length and depth of cuts along the vectors you have defined and create a number of different effects like the one I used. In this example I set the depth of cut along the wood grain vectors to vary between .09 and .15 inches plus ramping at the beginning and end of the cut.

Since the cut is along vectors with a V carve bit, the cutting time is significantly faster than if using a 3D image and a 3D Finishing path. Cutting time for the wood texture was about 7 minutes.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Thanks, Oliver, but I was referring to the cowboy in 3D.


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

difalkner said:


> Thanks, Oliver, but I was referring to the cowboy in 3D.


Nope. He's not 3D either. I scanned the pen & ink drawing and created vector art from it in Photoshop which was saved as an Adobe Illustrator eps. In the process I created an outline of the art that could be used to keep the grain from getting in the way. The vectors were imported into V Carve and cut with a 60º V bit. When combined with the texture it gives the illusion of 3D.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I notice that you have used some silver paint on this, and that you used gold on another piece. That adds a reall touch 'o class, pinache, to the things you make. You have a great sense of color.


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## Tagwatts (Apr 11, 2012)

Great job. Can you tell what program you used to download the picture to V carve with? What version of V carve are you working with/

Thanks, 
Tagwatts1


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

Tagwatts said:


> Great job. Can you tell what program you used to download the picture to V carve with? What version of V carve are you working with/
> 
> Thanks,
> Tagwatts1


I'm using V Carve Desktop version 8.5. As I mentioned above, the cowboy image was scanned from a book and I converted the bitmap image to vectors in Photoshop using an Action called Tracer which is available at GraphicRiver.net. The Tracer action works like the Trace Bitmap operation in V Carve. I used Photoshop because I needed to create an outline of all the cowboy vectors together and it was faster in Photoshop and I could guarantee that the outline and the art vectors were exactly the same size.


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