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Thread: Is it possible?

  1. #1
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    Is it possible?

    I'm in the process of designing a steamer trunk with a curved top, kind of like a barrel. It'll be made from a number of thin boards around 3" thick, cut at an angle, then glues together. The outside will be sanded round while the inside will be left flat. There will be two supports on the underside for looks. This is going to be a wedding gift for my niece. The wife came up with the idea of using the CNC, which I'm not going to have until July, to do something on the underside of the lid on the flat boards. She suggested hearts but that's not really a guy thing.

    So I've been trying to come with ideas. One thing they really like doing is skiing. So here's the question. How hard would it be to take an image of the ski trail map and split it up so the map can be large enough to fit on all the boards? What I was thinking is a V carving of just the trails (the white parts) split in half to fill the outside panels. That way I could do something like their names in the center panel. The V carvings could stop short of each board so if they didn't line up when glued together it wouldn't show. The top pic is just something I quickly glued up to see how I liked it. The second is what the underside of the lid will look like. The thin black lines are the glue joints and the thick black lines are the supports. The final picture is a trail map. The red line is where I would split it in half and the black lines are roughly where the glue joints would be.

    I don't want to commit to something that's going to be too advanced for a novice to do. But it does seam like it could be a fun project. I was planning on using QSWO for this.

    top.jpgtrunk.jpgtrails.jpg

  2. #2
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    Yes, you can do what you want to do...if your software supports tiling or you want to take the effort to break the image up manually into as many sections as are required to complete the cutting on multiple board. You obviously need to do this cutting before assembling the coopered top. Vectric's software can tile and even creates the separate toolpaths for each section automagically.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
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    I have two laptops I could dedicate to this but both are running Windows 7 and both are ex company laptops so upgrading to 10 could be an issue since I don't have a traditional licence key. I read that Carbide Create was a good place to start to learn but CC latest version doesn't work with 7. I looked at V carve desktop but V carve desktop I think is limited on how big of an area it can do. Once you jump up to Pro there's other software options that maybe I should be looking into. Is it worth downloading V Carve to play around with even if I decide to try a different brand?

    I figured this was just like turning. Once you stop there's endless places to spend money.

  4. #4
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    The trial downloads along with the excellent training videos from Vectric are very worthy, IMHO. I actually watched a couple of the videos last night to refresh my mind on tiling because I have a project I need to do for someone that will require it...something bigger than my 4x4 machine. Yes, VCarve Desktop is limited to small machines and that's on purpose. It's to allow hobbyists to utilize the same capabilities that the "unlimited" software affords them at a more approachable cost. There's almost no difference between DeskTop and Pro other than that machine size limitation. Autodesk has limits in the free/hobby version of Fusion360, too. Carbide Create is very limited in what it can do...on purpose. It's design to be super easy so someone can "cut something" real soon, but folks who really get into things will be finding another solution to do more complex and creative things once they exhaust the capabilities of the basic software.

    And yea, very much like turning. I've come to say that just like to a hammer, everything is a nail, having a CNC machine will always make you want to use it for almost everything you physically can. That's actually how it's been for me now three years in!
    Last edited by Jim Becker; 03-20-2021 at 5:45 PM.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  5. #5
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    There's a reason why you kept your CNC and not your slider, lol. Carbide Create looks like a simple program to allow people to get their feet wet while also temping people who cut their teeth on it to move to CC Pro. I did download V Carve to play around with it some. I'm not a big of software subscriptions. They tend to force you into upgrades even if you are perfectly happy with what you have. The upgrade could be an improvement but also mean relearning something that worked just fine. I did play some with Fusion 360 but I think it's too complicated for my needs, at least in the near future. V Carve feels more like a paint program and natural to use for me.

  6. #6
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    I would recommend purchasing VCarve Pro for $699. I am still using the same version (9.0 I think) that I purchased about 4 years ago and it will do most anything I need to do with my Avid Pro4848 cnc router. I did later upgrade to Aspire 9.5 just to play around with the 3D capabilities, but it is not really something I need and the basic vCarve Pro works fine for me. I agree that software subscriptions are not the way to go - unless someone else is paying for it or you really have enough work to justify paying a subscription fee. I sometimes use Fusion 360 (free version) but mainly use either VCarve Pro or Design Edge (cnc plasma cutting). By the way, I tried to do an auto-trace of the mountain trail image you supplied - and it was a no-go. I tried Inkscape and Design Edge. I will have to admit that I did not try VCarve pro, but I'm not sure it could have done much better. If I were trying to accurately reproduce your image for 3d carving, I think it would have to be a manual trace - although Aspire might be worth a try.

    Here are some videos demonstrating
    Vectric Aspire 3D modelling a grayscale image into a 3D relief for machining

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em6pkq4tR-Y
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5nuP1z702U

    David
    Last edited by David Buchhauser; 03-21-2021 at 2:24 AM.

  7. #7
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    Vectric's training videos are very much worth your time to watch...do the "playlist" approach as it makes it easy to start at the beginning and work through the complexity. If you have either the trial version or your own license, you can follow along and do the same projects as in the video if you want to.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alex Zeller View Post
    There's a reason why you kept your CNC and not your slider, lol.
    Hah...well, that's mostly a space consideration. The slider will get replaced once I have a new shop building. That said, I'm still wishing I would have gone larger on the CNC. 4x4 is really nice for most things, but I've had some situations where something would have been far easier with the longer arrangement...like a project I'm currently drawing out for a client that will require tiling due to length.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #9
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    My plan is to connect my phone to the TV and watch the videos while I have VCarve up on my laptop. I find the videos make more sense when I'm not trying to toggle between a video and the software while I'm trying to learn. I was a little worried about getting locked into VCarve before actually having a CNC router. But it seems like a popular choice and with the unlimited amount of time I can play with the free version. I assume that once I buy Vcarve I can then generate the tool paths on any project that I created.

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