[Oscar56]

Grey scale height map pattern for your cnc carving fun.

 

[difalkner]

The G-code for that would be a huge file!! Neat design, Oscar.

 

[Oscar56]

David, thank you.

I threw it into VCarve with my Axiom post processor to create a quick tool path. The finishing pass says about 3.5 megs. I am still learning VCarve so don't have much of an idea if that is a big file or not.

I am still using my Carvewright because I am completely spoiled. I just throw the image file in, set the carving height and hit go. No toolpath, plunge rate, carving speed inputs. Its all pre-programmed.

 

[difalkner]

My Longworth chuck files are 2-5KB, files with text are sometimes up to 100KB. I don't think I have any that are in the MB range but I can see this one you've created being a large file.

 

[Oscar56]

David, thank you for the comparison of files. I went back and looked at my files and they are all fairly large. A lot of my patterns are fairly involved.

 

[Oscar56]

CNC carved using the grey scale height map pattern shared above.

Black walnut and some glued up scraps I had left over from the chess board. Board is 11" x 9" carved at .325" deep.

 

[difalkner]

Looks great, Oscar! How long did it take to cut that, which bit(s) did you use, feedrate, etc.?

 

[Oscar56]

It took about an hour and 40 minutes on the 11" x 9" board at .325 depth. I just used the 1/16 bit ball nose router bit.

With the Carvewright everything is preprogrammed based on the bit. The machine carves to full depth on one pass so no clearing passes. You establish the quality of the carve based on overlap settings of DRAFT, NORMAL, BEST or OPTIMAL.

In this case I used Best. Optimal would have been a 2 and a half hour carve.