[cncjunky]

Burr, What if I was to engrave this in some aluminum and have it chrome plated. Would you do anything differently?

No BJM you wouldn't want to chrome plate it you. You would want to polish to a mirror finish with a buffing wheel and the tan and green buffing compound used for silver and aluminum. Use the tan first then the green. I use seperate buffing wheels for each compound. That's what alot of bikers and hot rodders do and any one else that wants that look to their aluminum. You can have your aluminum chrome plated, but your going to spend alot more money that way. With pollishing you can get just as good results, I've pollish all my aluminum parts that require that look and they come out excellent and you really can't tell the difference. And it is mush safer. You just have to practice it like everything else, but it's pretty easy to get a hang of.

[cncjunky]

[QUOTE=BurrMan;651639]While we were talking about BobArt, I thought I would spill this out of myself.

What if you wanted to do a fine engrave on a complex surface, instead of just a .1 deap emboss?

As a basic example, say I have a gas cap that I want to put the face of someone on. the gas cap may not be flat. you would add a "Texture" to your emboss surface as the detail.

Thats way awesome, you showed me how to do it with a engrave. I did'nt know you could do with a emboss too!!

Hey I've been messing with Gimp 2.6 and I know you don't have it, but everybody says it's pretty much like one of the newer photoshop's. I've been trying to clean up my picture in gimp and then I vectorize it, but not having much luck. I changed the lighting, changed the depth of black and white, and messed with all kinds of the features and it made some things better. I'm not satisfied with my results though. I need help

[bjm323]

No BJM you wouldn't want to chrome plate it you. You would want to polish to a mirror finish with a buffing wheel and the tan and green buffing compound used for silver and aluminum. Use the tan first then the green. I use seperate buffing wheels for each compound. That's what alot of bikers and hot rodders do and any one else that wants that look to their aluminum. You can have your aluminum chrome plated, but your going to spend alot more money that way. With pollishing you can get just as good results, I've pollish all my aluminum parts that require that look and they come out excellent and you really can't tell the difference. And it is mush safer. You just have to practice it like everything else, but it's pretty easy to get a hang of.

I understand this but was looking for a low maintenance option. Guess one could clear coat it. A lot of aftermarket bike parts are chrome plated billet. Thanks

[SBC Cycle]

I understand this but was looking for a low maintenance option. Guess one could clear coat it. A lot of aftermarket bike parts are chrome plated billet. Thanks

ChromeMasters in TN does all my plating. They are very good although sometimes a bit spendy. A suggestion no matter what route you go, polish BEFORE you engrave. Polishing tends to take the hard edge off your engraving and sometimes if you accidentally get a little aggressive with the polish it smears the fine details.

Start sanding with maybe 600 grit sandpaper (wet is better) and work your way up to 800 and 1000 for the best results. Be easy with it, you don't want scratches that you can't polish out. You can get a great shine with just a polish. Myself, I prefer chrome. I don't clean my bike very often but when I do I just need soap and water with the chrome stuff

[johnmac]

I may be a bit late for this post. I've worked in in comercial printing for over 20 years. Those round dots found in a halftone are used in the printing industry. They are well suited for optical reproducing methods, but if you are going to try to produce a toolpath for a bit, that may a complex proposition for the software. I don't have a good answer to the problem, but those dots can cause problems for us, too.

John

[cncjunky]

? Are you guys embossing from image? or are you vectorizing the picture then embossing from your vector?

[BurrMan]

Hey Juncky,
There may be a mixture of both as the file was discussed. But here:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpo...9&postcount=40

Just a couple posts back, is an image. The file attachment has the picture in it.

[cncjunky]

Hey Juncky,
There may be a mixture of both as the file was discussed. But here:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpo...9&postcount=40

Just a couple posts back, is an image. The file attachment has the picture in it.

Thanks Burr, I'm going to try it in the mourning. So on a photo of like a face or something more complex you would'nt do a vectorization?

[BurrMan]

Correct. I would use the emboss frome image and adjust from there.

[cncjunky]

Correct. I would use the emboss frome image and adjust from there.

I am getting my photo to emboss onto the shape, but I am having trouble generating tool path. How are you going about generating the toolpath?

[BurrMan]

THat emboss surface generated by BobArt is selectable for the 3d toolpaths. So you cant pocket, profile, or engrave it. If you select "Slice Planar" then select the surface as your geometry, it will toolpath from that. Be sure to do an entity summary to find the Top of part value to enter into your feature.

[cncjunky]

THat emboss surface generated by BobArt is selectable for the 3d toolpaths. So you cant pocket, profile, or engrave it. If you select "Slice Planar" then select the surface as your geometry, it will toolpath from that. Be sure to do an entity summary to find the Top of part value to enter into your feature.

Thanks Burr, I tried all the 3d tools and they all worked except for the 3d engrave. So far the best results came from the radial option. I noticed you and BJM talking about step over and the 3d radial option is the only one that has the step over option, right? So if I take my photo and go over all the spots that should be high and make them lighter and everything around them darker, will my photo have more dimension?

[BurrMan]

Hey juncky,
You can adjust the light properties of your photo to create different results. YOu can also change the "Z" emboss depth in the feature edit in BobArt to have it "Emboss higher".

THe stepover setting can be named different in other toolpaths. Like in the Slice Planar toolpath, it is set with the "Cut Amount" on the parameters page of the feature edit. THe little pictures on the side can help to realise what these things are.

[bjm323]

BurrMan, You have a PM

[sbcsigns]

hey guys i want to share this with you. i just got a new cnc machine from buildyourcnc dot com and this is my 4th cut. it took me about a week to come up with the g-code. (newby) but at the end im very happy with the results. its not the best finish. but for me who has never used cambam, mach 3 or even a cnc machine. hope you guys like it.

[zachf]

Here is a lithophane that I engraved into a 1/4" sheet of solid surface (corian). Burrman helped me a lot as far as editing the picture and getting the tool paths correct. I used a slice planer with a .03 engraving bit. I could look up more specs if anyone needs them, but I think this was done back with version 22.

ZachF

[narowal]

hi all i m new user i m using cnc machine router for wood cutting so i need to make halftone photo, but machine only works on nc G-codes so how can i make gcode for halftone help me

[BurrMan]

hi all i m new user i m using cnc machine router for wood cutting so i need to make halftone photo, but machine only works on nc G-codes so how can i make gcode for halftone help me

CAM software. Something like BobCad!

[orkki]

CNC Software or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOYwgO3ly-s

[orkki]

CNC Software