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I've just written up a blog posting on a recent project carving a commemorative plaque for a local malt whisky bar using an old and uneven lid from a whisky cask. Normally I'd just machine flatten the surface and v-carve it, however that would have spoiled the aged look and feel of the wood. The level of height difference here would have meant some letters being cut too deep and others not cut at all using the original v-cut toolpath.
There's a description of this project and how to match a CNC toolpath to an
uneven surface using some free, open-source plugin scripts I developed (CNC Toolkit and Wrapper) for 3DS MAX and GMAX.
The method is equally useful for other 4 and 5-axis CNC machining projects.
Hope you find it useful;
http://cnc-toolkit.blogspot.com
Rab
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Here's it finished with a wax polish after carving, with the depth of cut perfectly matched to the surface;