cnc picture test

Dan Noren

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here we go again kids! back into the realm of photovcarve. this is a test of a pic of the pastor's daughter, and her favorite stuffed toy. the blanks are cherry, with several coats of sanding sealer on them. we then have the end results, and with the stain applied. now i have to wait for the stain to dry entirely, then a quick rub with 220, and see what happens.
 

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well, after waiting for the stain to finish drying, gave it a bit of a rub with 220. all i can say, is that the results are pretty disappointing. at least the toy dog managed to show up.
 

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I'm thinking photovcarve is good for lithophanes or photos in wood that are/need extensive coloring during staining. The latter is beyond my abilities so I'll stick to litho's with PVC at least for now.

Have you considered/used halftoner? I really think it's the tool for the product you're looking for.
 
Yeah - there is a way to do it.

Unfortunately, I have nothing to offer.

I bought it, but only used it once. My machine at that time was NOT 3D capable, and I was not successful at PVC.

I have not used it since 2007.

I have seen a lot of good results though.
 
When you consider that other folks are getting results like the following with PVC, it bears reading what they do.

View attachment 92651

Link to thread.

I'm not there yet but I'm reading what those folks say.

You're right Bill, this is beautiful work. It requires extensive photo editing before importing and then some pretty extensive finishing technique. It's worth it but for me for now I need something easier to keep from getting discouraged! :)
 
I've been playing around with my laser this weekend and the one thing I can tell you is I don't think you can take a picture 'as is' and put it into any software and expect it to work very well.

You are basically taking a color picture with a large number of R, G, B, and Brightness variables and trying to convert that into an X,Y, and Z value, or in my case, a laser power value.

What I've been doing is to convert the picture to gray scale and adjusting the contrast and brightness variables to try and 'imagine' what the results will look like.

I'd suggest popping the picture into some editing software and playing with it a bit and THEN loading it into Photocarve to generate the gcode.

At least it looks like the machine is behaving nicely now and not digging into the work.

I can't tell you how many experiments I've been working on. I'll make a post on things after I get a successful image to show for myself.
 
If one has a CNC machine with X, Y and Z coordinates, why is it not 2.5D or 3D capable?

I believe the problem was the BOB and/or controller software he had at the time. He later switched that out and went to Mach3 and all the capability was opened up then. There are machines out there that have some pretty weird limitations (like being able to only handle driving one or two axes at a time, for example).
 
I believe the problem was the BOB and/or controller software he had at the time. He later switched that out and went to Mach3 and all the capability was opened up then. There are machines out there that have some pretty weird limitations (like being able to only handle driving one or two axes at a time, for example).


Jason is correct.

Even the machine manufacturer's owner of my "Larken" Camtool 2424 admitted that his software and BOB were flawed in the model years around my machines build. The upgrades made a world of difference.

I went through about 2 years of trying to solve the issues I was having. I gave up, trying to make anything 3D at all. For about 2 more years I did only 2D, but now and then tried to solve the issue.

I don't remember when but I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade. I was silly happy with the results.

It had a lot more to do with the BOB than anything else. I upgraded the operating software because the Larken software would not work on the new BOB and it was just so outdated and super basic. He still uses it, but has new hardware now. Actually the mechanics of the machine are good. Well - I did need to upgrade the steppers too.

It has been a lot of upgrading, but the machines well now.
 
I wonder if the stain is simply making things too uniform, or it needs a light source from an angle to create shadows and the effects you expect? I've not played with this myself, so don't really have any advice of things to try.
 
Whitened the background, changed to grayscale, and brightened it a bit more. Going to give it another try.

I seriously think this stuff requires a lot of 'experience' to make them look right. The more you play with it, the more you learn. There are so many variables it seems like everyone has to come up with their own 'recipe' to make things work. I'm starting to zero in on some for the laser thing. Cant wait to try the router thing some day.
 
... It had a lot more to do with the BOB than anything else. I upgraded the operating software because the Larken software would not work on the new BOB and it was just so outdated and super basic. He still uses it, but has new hardware now. Actually the mechanics of the machine are good. Well - I did need to upgrade the steppers too.

It has been a lot of upgrading, but the machines well now.

Gotcha! I guess the machine kit I got has some of this new capability. It's good to hear some of the history of CNC from you guys!

As soon as I get off the "high" of learning to do stacked text, I'll get back to PVC stuff.
 
Oh yeah, I've been burning a bunch of tests. Finally started to get some traction today.

Created some gcode using perl to give me a base line, and then was able to find a version of grbl that supported a 'laser spindle' mode.

The standard version has a 'dwell' that causes everything to pause when you change the spindle speed. Well, lasers don't need that and when it pauses it causes it to burn too much.

So now I'm making progress, but need some more uniform material to burn. Different materials burn differently, and will require different settings.

So I feel your pain with the carving stuff, but I think with the laser there is even more variables to have to deal with.

Looks like I'll be joining your ranks soon enough though! :D
 
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