First V-bit carving using Carveco

Well, it's only been about 6 or 7 months since we bought Carveco and I finally watched enough tutorials to hack something out - yay!! I have been feeling guilty spending so much on software and not using it so I picked something that brings Fusion 360 to its knees - lots of text. I love F360, very powerful software. It does not handle text very well at all but it's the sweet spot for products like the Vectric line and Carveco.

Not wanting to use my pricey hardwoods I picked up a 12"x48" glued up board of Spruce/Pine/Fir (I think this is Pine) at Lowe's and figured I would start with that. This also represents only the second or third time I have had Pine in the shop in the last 5 years - it tears my allergies up like crazy!

So, on to the project; it's 9.5" x 12" x 3/4" thick, cut with a 5/8" diameter 60° bit, 100 ipm, 18k rpm, and cut with two passes. The first pass took most of the material and I did a follow up pass lowering Z by 0.005" to clean up any fuzz although there was far less than I would have thought for Pine. Cut time was about 12 minutes (per pass). I squared it off with the table saw rather than cut it out on the CNC.

The finish is Nitrocellulose sealer, sanded, one coat of gloss lacquer, sanded, Mohawk Van Dyke Brown glazing stain, sanded, final coat of semi-gloss lacquer. The finish took about 30-40 minutes including drying time.

Here's the finished plaque -
Attachment 437510

Plunge router and keyhole bit for the hanging slot -
Attachment 437512

I was surprised how cleanly the Pine engraved for this tiny logo, which is about 1.5" across, and cut with a 1/8" 60° bit -
Attachment 437514

Using Carveco for the first time was kind of fun and a wholly different approach than using Fusion 360 but there's a lot I want to do with it, including some 3D work. Actually 2.5D, I guess, because the bottom will be flat. This isn't truly the first thing I have cut with Carveco but it's the first thing I can show. Last week I asked our pastor's teenage daughter to send me a photo of her and her new dog but didn't tell her why. So I took the photo and V-carved it and it came out really nice and she loved it. But since she's a minor I don't plan on posting any photos of that project.

Enjoy!
David

I think that the lettering came out great on your project! I used ArtCAM Pro for a few years and then had to downsize to Insignia - I was rarely happy about how the letters looked with either software, but I must admit most of my time I'm in the 2.5D world cutting objects. I recently have been wanting to make some "Art work" with some words at times, so I bought CarveCo - not so much for the lettering features, but because it was a great price and is basically ArtCAM Pro. So, I've been getting back to re-learning ArtCAM, basically.

Can I ask what fonts you use for that and which ones that you recommend to stay away from ? Also, have you done anything with texturing ? I was looking for one I had in Insignia that looked liked a gouge tool was used.

Thanks,
Bret

Thanks, Bret! I have not tried any texturing but I need to do some soon on a project. As for the fonts, I used whatever looked good for each word and what fit in the space available without interfering with other words. There are a few that don't work well but I either work around that or switch fonts. Sorry, I don't have a list of either the ones I used or the ones that don't work.

David