NFrankN

Hi Guys, I am new to this as well as CNC. I "try" to do woodworking, mostly signs, plaques, and a speed loader. I am trying to make my wife a cutting board like one I saw on you-tube. It is the American flag. I drew out the stars, spaced, and aligned. Now I am having trouble finding a program that will allow me to cut them out, and then cut out separate stars to fill in with. I am cutting purpleheart and wanting to fill in with maple. Every program I choose shows me the cut star, but not enough room to place Maple star inside. I would appreciate any help with this. I have a CNC Shark HD Pro, and using V-Carve 8.5 software. Sorry to be so new and unfamiliar with this to bother y'all, but I would like a suggestion if any ideas. Thanks in advance guys, and Thanks for allowing me the chance to join and learn for the forum.

Thanks Again,

Frank

Because of the tool diameter, it won't get into the sharp corners of the star. There are 2 ways around this. First would be to use the fillet tool with the smallest diameter you can use to cut the thickness of the star, and fillet the corners of the star. The second way would be to flip the board over, and cut the star using a sharp v-cutter, then v-carve the star, so that it can be glued in from the back. There's a few inlay articles in the Vectric forum about this.

Thank You Sir, I will look at what you suggest and give it a shot. I recently cut my stars with a 60 degree V-Bit, and they came out great, with sharp corners. Now I need to figure out how to cut out the fillers to make them look right. I'll for sure look at what you suggested, Thank You again Sir, I appreciate the help.

Frank

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Originally Posted by NFrankN

Thank You Sir, I will look at what you suggest and give it a shot. I recently cut my stars with a 60 degree V-Bit, and they came out great, with sharp corners. Now I need to figure out how to cut out the fillers to make them look right. I'll for sure look at what you suggested, Thank You again Sir, I appreciate the help.

Frank

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Welcome. It's simple, you (flip the parts over horizontally if they're not symmetrical), use the prismatic toolpath with the same v-bit. so basically you cut it upside down.

You can do the opposite as well, by cutting the large board in reverse, then cutting the inlays right-side-up, with the same v-bit. The advantage of this is that you can make inlays that cannot be removed, which would be good for something like institutional ADA signage, where the letters can be made vandal-proof.