Photo VCarve

[NeathawkSigns]

This is a little late - but I don't recall using photoshop to crop the photo into an oval. I believe I drew an Oval vector and used it as a boundary in Aspire. If you didn't figure it out yet, I can try and go back and see what I did. The finishing technique I used I believe is called a "glazing" technique. Basically I covered the sign in a sanding sealer, let it dry, then used a gel stain. It is helpful to have a rag around to wipe any excess stain away. After you get it to where you want and it dries, any excess stain can be sanded away (this is more so for the lettering and borders - you're not going to want to do any sanding in the Photo V Carve part). I used this same technique in the tequila cabinet that I did here http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15996 . For a top coat, I used spray polyurethane because I wasn't sure if they were going to keep it inside or outside.

You can find the glazing information on Vectric's website:
http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectr...e_glazing.html


Ryan

[larry_k]

thanks I was going to try my kids photo again. that helps alot. thank you again larry

[bob_reda]

photo v carve, while having a lot of potential never seemed to make it do to whatever reasons, the most obvious is inconistent results and the finishing that goes with it. Now we are talking just engraving just .001's of an inch, so if your z is off just alittle there it goes, and that is where I think most of everyones problems lie. Be off .001 on anything else, no big deal on photo vcare it is a disater. Saying all of that, I tried the 30 degree engraving bit with the .005 tip and the results improved tremendously. I even did a small carving 3x2 on a piece of warped 1/4" poplar and it came out ok.

Just my .02

Bob

[nailzscott]

Bob, I am baffled - and impressed that you got good results. I have tried probably 20 times in the last couple of years to get decent results and had only 1 in all that time that looked moderately usable. So can you give me some insight on settings; like what size photo you were using, the Carving Max. Depth and what the Distance between the lines ended up being. I have a relative who just bought a used Shopbot and wants to do some photo vcarving; so I wanted to pass along some details to him. Thanks.

[bob_reda]

Scott,

Foremost you need a pic of at least 200dpi, you can do it with less but it takes more trial and error. with the 30^ engraving bit, you can run a little deeper say(and this depends on the pic) around .05 or so and stay somwhere around 120% line spacing. I have a block of wood cut to exactly 1". When I zero my z and go to my safe height which is 1" i slide that block under the bit to see if it just toches, I adjust my z from that point. I might be .01 off depending where I am at on the table. Make sure you apply some sort of finish prior to staing or painting. I usually use two coats of sanding sealer. I spray with a printers ink and wipe off lightly immediately. Wait for it to dry and sand off lightly. thats what I do, and I'm still playing around with it

Bob

[nailzscott]

Thanks Bob, I'll pass along the information and will probably give it a shot myself some day. Thanks again.