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Author Topic: Small project not going well  (Read 19435 times)

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Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #20 on: May 08, 2014, 07:29:46 PM »
Hard to tell, are you using a ball mill ? or flat ?
What CAM ?
You could load a smaller cutter and just profile the features with your cam ?

Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #21 on: May 08, 2014, 08:59:08 PM »
The letters are cut with a 20 degree tapered bit and the clean up is a flat bit. It's .0500" deep. The angle is for metal casting. This person plans on casting these in Brass. I took longer than expected so he may have to hurry or do it after the wedding. He asked they be cut both ways. The strange thing is they didn't cut the same. The letters on the second one are a little thinner and it was harder to clean up. I haven't seen any smaller bits and broke one of these by dropping it on the concrete. :(
I'm using the free program, F-engrave, it works great for larger items but if I'm going to do much of this small stuff, I'll have to invest in a better CAM program.
Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #22 on: May 14, 2014, 01:45:12 AM »
What I was going to clean up with the dermal was little areas in between the letters that the 1/16" bit could not fit into. Is there another way to clean out these areas with the code?
I work with MeshCAM Art, for my 3D stuff. It does a great job, since it creates a tool path for the roughing cut, as well as the finishing cut. (I usually use a 1/4" bit for the rough, and a 1/8" bit for the finishing cut). You can actually "LIE" to MeshCAM about the diameter of a tool (I tell it the .125" bit is a 0.94" bit). This forces the software to create a more detailed tool path for the finishing cut. However, since most of what I carve is recycled tractor-trailer flooring, (Oak) it still sometimes requires some touch-up work by hand using a Dremel tool. As for areas that are too small for the tooling to reach into, this is best handled at the artwork design phase. Simply space the letters further apart, to accommodate the tool diameter. I use Corel Draw in designing my artwork. And what I typically do, is to draw a circle .125" diameter, and drag it around the drawing using it as a "measuring device" to check the spacing of my artwork. If it won't fit between letters in the design phase, then the bit won't fit between them when you are carving. I have found it to be a great time-saver, for checking the artwork prior to tool path creation.
Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #23 on: May 15, 2014, 12:17:22 PM »
There were only about a dozen little bits to cut out. These plaques are only about 4" wide, I think the letters were 30 pt size. Too small for raised letters. I've got some other ones to do but they aren't so detailed. I did a bronze casting yesterday of a small plaque I did for another fellow. I'll try to get some pictures on.
Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #24 on: May 25, 2014, 03:12:13 PM »
Here's the other little plaque, about 4" long. It's for a friend that has restored a set of Howe Scales and needed the name plate for it. I'll let him decide to paint the background or just add some patina. The original was painted with a red background, I believe.
Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #25 on: May 25, 2014, 05:59:49 PM »
Looks like they turned out great!
Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #26 on: May 30, 2014, 12:46:36 PM »
The fellow I sent the finished plaque to cast it in brass. The metal may have been a little hot, hard to get the temp right in a home foundry. He's going to try it again when he gets a day off. The best thing to do with this type of casting is to sand or machine off the top of the letters and heart to give a smooth surface. Add patina to the background.
Re: Small project not going well
« Reply #27 on: May 30, 2014, 11:14:18 PM »
Beautiful!