Toolpathing Layers for Multi-Color Epoxy Inlays

[@unclebob8746]

Great video and very timely for me as I have a similar project in mind. I will use some wood inlays for the letters and various epoxy inlays for flowers and leaves.I really appreciate the time and effort you take in producing your videos! Slow speech makes it easy to follow along with you.

[@williamstauffer1542]

Wow, quite impressive Mark. It will be fun to see it become real.

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

Thank you, William. I'll be showing off the piece of Leopard Wood I'm going to carve this into today on the live stream. Hope to see you there!

[@RobSandstromDesigns]

Very good video Mark. Carving the full clear and pouring is a good idea. One recommendation I would make is for the clear toolpath, I would cut it at 0.15" vs. 0.12". Then the following colors, I would cut at 0.125" vs. 0.11" as you indicated you plan on doing. The reason I make this recommendation is it allows a little more opportunity to maintain your colors at the end when you surface and then finish. As we have discussed there may be a little wood movement or other factors that require a little more surfacing than you originally intend. The extra depth provides just a little more insurance with no real extra time and carving and minimal epoxy expense/work. Just something for you consideration. Looking forward to following this series of videos.

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

Noted! I'll make those changes and talk about them in the next video. I'll also mention it during today's live stream.

[@stevegronsky8904]

Looking forward to seeing this cut and filled in. Pretty cool project.

[@johnthompson5388]

Great job

[@john-nn7ql]

Good information. Very straight forward. In the bit order, I thought your rule was to always cut the V bit before the end mill, to reduce tear out? With epoxy it would be chip out. Thanks. See you this afternoon.

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

You have good eyes and a great memory, John! (I need you around more often.) You're absolutely right about the bit order. I only realized I had made that mistake after the video was uploaded, and I was editing the closed captions. I wasn't about to re-shoot the whole video and start over, so I figured I'd correct the error in the next video. Good catch! Thank you!

[@jmjluvdance]

Great video. A lot of details to keep straight. I like the way you have everything organized. What are your tool parameters for the 15 degree v bit, especially the step over. Will you do all the pours and then do a final surfacing?

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

Thank you, Jeff! Yes, I'll be surfacing it before and after the pours (I think I said that in the video, but I really don't remember.) I can show the parameters for the v-bit during the live stream later, and I'll add that to the next video when I get into surfacing the material.

[@patrickl6866]

Mark, thanks for your work and for posting . This is a great technique. You could have used a variable for the "flat depth" and not had to change each tool path, correct?

[@woodfantasy871]

Thank you for this video Mark. I would like to ask you, can we use a smaller end mill instead of a Vbit?

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

Not with the V-carve toolpath. That toolpath was made for v-bits. You could use a small end mill with a pocket toolpath, but you won't get square corners.

[@woodfantasy871]

@@MarkLindsayCNC thank you Mark

[@mariomontoya7334]

Hello mark. I'm doing a new Vcarving of the MAD magazine characters SPY vs SPY. Its a very simple cartoon in black and white. The size of the material it will be carved on is about 15"x15". I will be filling in the carving with pigmented epoxy. I have a max cut depth for all the vectors of .02" with a start depth of .01". I'm wondering if that would be deep enough for this type of carving.

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

That's pretty thin, Mario. Remember that the flat depth you set is the max depth, and any thinner lines will be correspondingly shallower. You'll run the risk of surfacing or sanding away a lot of detail if you pour that shallow. When I did the pirate inlay, I used a 15° v-bit, with a flat depth of .1 inches. I got a good outline, and never sanded through any of it at all.

[@mariomontoya7334]

Thanks Mark.

[@justjack9561]

I have a question for you when, trying to save the tool path for the black on the skull I get a message back that says Following tools produce empty tool pan, they may not be able to fit anywhere the previous tool, could not within their current parameters I had originally done tool pass for a skull, but went back and change the skull. I don’t know if that’s what’s causing my problem. Maybe you have some suggestions

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

That message means that the Clearance Tool you have selected is too big to fit into the area you're trying to carve. You can either uncheck Use Clearance Tool or select a clearance tool that is small enough to fit into the area you want to carve. If you can't do either of those, you'll have to either modify the vectors to provide more space for the tool, or scale up the entire project to allow that clearance tool to fit into the area you want to carve. It's easier to just uncheck Use Clearance Tool and let the v-bit do all the clearing, or select a clearance tool with a smaller cutting diameter.

[@justjack9561]

@@MarkLindsayCNC well, first of all, thank you for the quick reply. This is coming up when I’m only using the 15° V bit

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

You don't have a checkmark in the "Use Clearance Tools" box in your V-Carve toolpath? If not, check the distance between the vectors in the area you want to carve. They'd have to be very close together to not allow a 15° v-bit in there. If they're that close together, the bit wouldn't carve deep enough to do an epoxy pour anyway. Double check your vectors, and use the Measure tool to check the distance between them.

[@markroles7304]

Instead of having to rename all your Gcode files to reflect what bit you will need, just click on the CREATE JOB SHEET icon that is right next to the SAVE TOOLPATHS icon. This will show you then all of your Toolpaths in order and what bit it is supposed to use plus speeds and feeds etc.

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

That's a great option for VCarve Pro and Aspire users, but Job Sheets aren't available in VCarve Desktop. I try to show users of all levels of the software how to do things using methods and techniques available to everyone, wherever possible. That's also why yo don't see me using Gadgets. Gadgets aren't available to users of VCarve Desktop, so I don't get into them at all.

[@rexmcgurk9792]

Epoxy Inlays did you make video showing how to mix and appley the Epoxy to the Inlays?

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

No... That'll be the next video in this series.

[@rexmcgurk9792]

@@MarkLindsayCNC Thank you I would love to see that!

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

I would highly suggest you go back and watch all of the videos in this series. The link to the playlist is in the description.

[@markroles7304]

How I estimate epoxy volume, is to fill in the carved out region with white rice and measure its weight. Prior to that I first pour a known volume of epoxy into a cup and measure its weight, then using an exact size and shape cup I fill it with white rice to the exact level of what the epoxy was at. With simple math you get a ratio epoxy to rice weight measurement. So next time you weigh the rice you multiple it by it by this ratio number and you get a real dead on target epoxy weight that you need. Just make sure first that the rice is first left in the same room and temperature for a few days where you will be pouring/curing the epoxy to have the rice stabilize its moister level. For any added moisture in the rice would effect its weight in humid regions of the world. This needs to be done only once if your environment does not change much. I get dead on results with this method. Just have the rice be a little proud of the carving level to off set the small amount of epoxy that will always be remain in the cup.

[@markroles7304]

When it comes to cost of epoxy and pigments, remember that your epoxy pours are just 0.125" deep and the amount of pigments used for each color are just drops not ounces for each one.

[@MarkLindsayCNC]

Absolutely, Mark. It's just like anything else - there's the big upfront cost to buy the materials, even though you're only going to use a fraction of those materials. So the $200 I've spent on epoxy and pigments doesn't mean the material costs of this project was $200. It just means that's what it cost to get the materials here. It looks like I'll be doing a cost breakdown video after it's all said and done, so I'll go further into detail then. Thank you for all of your comments! I do appreciate it!