Sandblasted Wood Grain Background Revisited

I've been searching through the archives for information about routing a sandblasted look on a background of a sign. I'm using enroute 3 3d and also use flexi and the corel suite.

I've been playing with the apply bitmap feature in enroute, trying to add a woodgrain look to the piece, and it just doesn't look right--it looks very bitmapped.

I did find a picture that is similar to what I'd like to see here: http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/mes...312/16002.html But for the life of me, can't figure out the easy way to do this. Was each individual grain programmed and done with a v-bit? Or was this an automated feature of whatever software to which he referred?

Any tips or suggestions are most welcome.

Mike

Here's an example of what you are looking for via the Vectric (V-Carve Pro) forum:

http://vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1807

and

http://vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1812

-B

MB

What you are looking for, and is capable for you to do with Enroute, comes from bitmap textures. I've attached samples done by Dan S who also uses this software.

You can take photo's with your digital camera of wood textures, sand, gravel, or any interesting surface and incorporate this into your file. Ray Chapman does the same thing using ArtCam Pro.

Routing is done with a 1/8" ball nose.

Enroute has a training CD which shows the process.

Ray is an excellent artist, rather short and from Texas. Heeeheee
Attachment 5737

Just to add a little clarity, the excellent examples that Joe has posted are done using a 3D raster toolpath strategy with a ball end cutter. The links to examples that I posted are more of a 2D (XZ or YZ moves) using a V-bit that leverages the shape of the cutter to produce the background texture very quickly. If you are doing a large sign, the V-Carve method takes minutes compared to hours with the bitmap to 3D strategy. It all boils down to which one you need (and which one your customer is willing to pay for).

-B

Mike, The texture on the Piney Creek and Sunbelt signs were done with a 1/2" ball end mill, toolpathed in V Carve Pro. James

Attachment 5738

This is the woodgrain that I use in ArtCam Pro. It was given to me by Dan Sawatzky in Canada, who uses Enroute. Almost any texture can be created using a black and white bitmap.

When I cut it on my ShopBot I use a 1/8" round nose bit.

Here's a sample of one job using the woodgrain. It's a little too deep for my judgement, but I shallowed it up some on later jobs.


Attachment 5739

In response to that old sign guy in Oklahoma - when God made me he was more interested in quality than quanity.

Nice work Ray,

Approx. how long did it take to route this sign?

Today our CNC quietly buzzed away in the background. I hardly noticed it was working.
A spindle slicing it's way through HDU is close to silent work.

I'm attaching my lobster, which was rendered with a 2" tapered bit. I had this bit made by Woodline. It has a point of near zero and would be difficult to break since it has so much metal in it. You can really push these big bits at high speeds without fear of breaking.

Another fluke idea which seems to work.



Attachment 5740

Thanks Joe. The sign panel is about 3' x 4' and seems like it took some where is the neighborhood of three hours, but later versions were not as deep and I believe it went down to about two hours.

We are just about to run four more panels of the same size - for the City Hall, so I will keep better track of the time, speeds, etc.

That bit looks like one of your arrows from back in your buffalo hunting days.

As for the previous comment you made about me being from Texas....we have this saying down here - "American by birth, Texan by the grace of God."

Poor Michael B. His post was smuggled away from him. It's yours for the taking.

Ray, you guys down there, better call on the favors all the Gods when our football team heads that way. It won't be pretty. No sir. There's going to be lots of beggin and pleedin and we wil try to show mercy. Not

OK now Joe, Ray has given this Texan alot of good advise on my last two sign jobs, and a whole new material to work with from the Austin camp. Only bad thing, and nothing to do with Ray, is I am going to have to replace one of the signs from the first job, it is now under the stone wall I mounted it on. Oh well, it is job security, thanks to a kid in her moms mercedes.

I sent this to Ray directly when the forum was down for admin but thought it may also help some others.

I'm not sure this material would have helped but it may be useful in the future.
Its preformed and sculpted and colored HDU in sheets.
Available in interesting sculpted panels to look like driftwood, tree bark, bricks, bamboo, flagstone etc. Check it out at.

http://www.textureplus.com/

The driftwood style looks a lot like your photo.
Sample kits are easy to get and we have been waiting to use it for a wood grain background and pocket or apply letters etc in or over it.
Just haven't had the right sign for it yet but samples look very good and you can't tell the HDU sheet from the real thing.
Seems it would save tons of time for these types of backgrounds.

Jerry,
Nice find! Thanks for the link!

-B

I've sent for the sample kit that Jerry mentioned. I'm anxious to see who we might be able to use these. The stone especially might be handy for support beams, etc.

Just have to wait and see how we might be able to work the woodgrain stuff into the studio.

No problem at all with the smuggled post.

I had tried the bitmap texturing before but didn't like the way it turned out. I increased my scale and was amazed. Now if I can hammer out the speeds. Two issues here: My enroute 3 is not sending the feed rates to the shopbot. I talked with my supplier and he confirmed the same thing when he went through to test my theory. I set everything up properly in enroute as far as speeds but that information is not encoded in the file that is sent to shopbot. I talked with shopbot and they sent me to enroute. As far as that goes, I'm camping out.

The second speed issue is in cutting sign foam. What is my high end speed for 3d cutting it with an 1/8" ball nose bit? I have it set at 6 and 3 inches per second, which are what seem to be the limits of the shopbot software since that's how i'm having to set the speeds. Is it possible to change those limits?

Mike