[Minora72]

I am interested in engraving in to oar faces as gifts for my sailors. The oar face for engraving is approximately 144mm wide by 160mm and has about 2.22 millimeters from the center high point to the edge low point. I'm looking to engrave up to 100mm wide X 153mm high (4 inches wide by 6 inches high).

My idea is if I had a 3d image of the surface I could then lay the engraving on it and then convert to G-Code... am I on track?

Problem is I am such a NOOB that I don't have the skills to create a 3d image... I have ben able to V-Carve on flat surfaces. I can mill circles in to the oar (since I don't care if the depth is quite even on all sides (for putting challenge coins in to the face).

Any advise would be great! If my idea is correct, if someone was willing to create the 3d surface for use in inkspace or similar would be fantastic.

Thank you for reading this!

[awerby]

I don't think you really need to go through all that. If all you want to do is engrave a 2d image onto a barely 3d surface, you can get a spring-loaded tool that will do it without translating the vector into 3D: Spring Loaded Engraving Tool Engraves Flat, Curved, and Uneven Surfaces with a CNC Machine Of course, how well that works depends on your spindle, the tool you use, and the composition of your oar.

Another solution would be to use Deskproto, and a 3D mesh model of the oar. If the program knows what the oar looks like, it can calculate the Z moves to lay a 2d linear image over it. You can use Deskproto free for a month before you need to pay for it, and it's quite reasonably priced for hobbyists.

[cyclestart]

My idea is if I had a 3d image of the surface I could then lay the engraving on it and then convert to G-Code... am I on track?

If you want to experiment a little it's possible to to 'map' a surface using a simple probe.
Full disclosure: I've played with the probing part of G-Code Ripper but haven't found a reason to cut anything so far.
However Scorch writes good software.