Beginner American Flag 3d Carving.

Software:

Vectric Cut3D

Machine Time:

Aproximately 6 Hours

Bit or Laser Size:

.250 DownCut & .125 Ball end mill

Feeds & Speeds:

80 IPM, 60 plunge rate @ .125 DOC for roughing pass. 60 IPM, 40 plunge rate @ remaining DOC. These speeds should be adjusted for your specific machine and material.

Materials:

Red Oak. Minwax Classic Oak, and Polyurethane all in one.

Running my first cut on the Lead 1010.

I bought this file a few months back from Etsy, 3d models for cnc router and 3d printer by 3dmodelsByVadim and the weather is finally starting to break enough to make some chips fly.

Before I can do anything, I'll need to make some gcode to run. I use Vectric Cut3D for my 3D carvings. It works quite well most of the time. I import my STL file, and set my project size first.
Then set my material size, thickness and starting point.

Select bit, feeds and speeds for the roughing pass.
And again for the finish pass.

Next, you can preview what your passes will look like. You can always go back and make changes if there is something you don't like. Next, you will save your gcode. I use the post processor called "G Code" There are 2 pp's named that. One is inches, and one is mm. I used the mm one for the OpenBuilds Control software. (NOTE) I setup all the previous steps using inch settings. I only saved the gcode as mm. The reason I did this is because I don't use the metric system enough to know what I'm putting in there. The OB Control software only supports metric, so that's why I exported the gcode as such.



Okay. I have my code and am ready to put it to use!

The material I am using here is a piece of 1" thick Red Oak. You can find it at any Home Depot or Lowes as a stair tread. A bit pricey, but they are ready to carve.

I always drill pilot holes, use a counter sink bit, and just screw it to my spoil board. Make sure you offset your zero starting point enough to avoid hitting the screws with your expensive router bits!!

I just draw a line far enough away from any hold down screws for my zero and line up my 1/4" down cut, 2 flute router bit for X,Y, and Z.


Using the OpenBuilds Control software, I load my gcode file that I made previously with Cut3D, and click the play button and wait for the roughing pass to finish up.




I really like the down cut end mills for a super clean result! Time to move on to the finish pass . Change out the 1/4" end mill for the 1/8" ball end mill. Check that it's just barely touching the surface of the wood, and re-zero only the Z axis. The machine should have automatically gone back to the point of original Z when it finished the roughing pass. Make sure you don't hit zero all axis if you jogged the machine to change your bit!!

Depending on your machine, the speeds you choose and the size of your project, this will take awhile. About 4-5 hours for mine.


Off of the machine, and a little bit of sanding later, it's ready for a coat of polyurethane.




I only put one coat on in this picture, but you might want to apply 3 or more depending on how you want it to look.