Rockler CNC Demonstration #9Create a Lithophane

Aug 8, 2018

Materials Required

1) Photo VCarve Softwarea. I don’t think the Demo version allows creating tool paths

2) Your favorite photos or other clip arta. Sample Boy b. Today I will also use my pirate painting and our cat Kinja on the couch

3) One of these router bits

a. 1/8 Ball Noseb. 1/16” or 1/32” Tapered Ball Nose (I used a 1/16” for the lithophane)c. 90 or 60 Degree V Bit (I used a 60 Degree for the engraving)

4) Acrylic sheeta. McMaster Carr sells 12” x 12” x3/16” pieces for $8.28b. Also sell 12” x 12” x 1/16”clear for $4.17 (to use as cover if building in to something)

5) You favorite wood or portion of your wood project

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Photo VCarve - Making Lithophanes and Engraving on Wood

Once you start the program it will walk you through the following steps:

1) Step 1 – Open Imagea. Click Load Image and select a file. (JPG, BMP, TIF, PNG, GIF)b. Discuss “Make color Transparent”

i. Use “boy” from sample folder1. This file was cleaned up using something like Adobe Illustrator2. Show what happens if not cleaned up.

2) Step 2 - Set Material Sizea. Width/Height as needed.

i. Once file loaded enter either one and the other is automatically calculatedb. Enter XYc. Enter Material Thicknessd. Choose Inches or mme. Hit “Apply”

3) Step 3 – Set Cutting Parameters ( most important, may require trial and error)a. Select tool and confirm feed rates

b. Set “Carving Max Depth”

i. For wood this most likely will be between 0.04” and 0.08”

ii. For lithophanes, I used material thickness minus 0.025”

c. Set Line Spacing (may be somewhat tool dependent too)

i. For wood this may range from 80 to 200 depending on overall size

1. Show what happens

ii. For lithophanes more detail is needed so 15-40% based on tool

d. Set line angle (I have not used “cross hatch”

i. For wood 20-35 degrees

ii. Lithophanes 45 degrees

e. Invert light / dark areas (explain)

i. For wood do not check this box

ii. For Lithophanes check this box

f. Adjust contrast

i. For wood this is easy to see the results, keep trying until you like what you see

ii. For Lithophanes I found it a little harder to visualize so it may require some test cuts

g. Hit “calculate” to see the results of changing the above numbers

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The samples I brought in used the following parameters shown below:

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4) Step 4 – Preview & Save Toolpatha. Here you can choose a material to help you visualize what it will looks likeb. An estimated run time is given

i. As in VCarve, it is not exact but relative to options chosenii. Select post processor and save file with a meaningful name

Questions?

Topics for next meeting?

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