VCarve Sign Tutorial: From Design to CNC

[@1960fusion]

Thank you, i just assembled my cnc and downloaded v carve pro and your tutorial was by far the easiest to follow and comprehend.

[@mikewilson484]

Thanks for a great tutorial. Calm but not sleepy, no music, no hype and a pleasant voice. Great pace for me. Looking forward to checking out your other VCarve tutorials.

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thank you so much for your kind words!

[@rogerjohnson2310]

Best basic tutorial I have seen so far. I was very frustrated and ready to quit until I watched this tutorial. Thanks, great job

[@kathleennelsen4212]

Best video I have found yet to get started. I wish I had found this video months ago.

[@joecnc3341]

Liked-Subscribed-Notified. Excellent Video (I'm a VCarve addict, too). You are a natural born teacher. Well thought out, very well presented. I hope you continue producing KZbin Videos (especially VCarve Videos)

[@danielstein8320]

Well done. Can you show the same sign in relief? With variations. Thanks??

[@kenpeterson2]

Great video. I really appreciate the start to finish approach from Design with all steps described and then showing it on the CNC router. Thank You.

[@hudsonriverlee]

Ahhhh a great video. Well lit, a great Clear Voice, spoken at a normal rate of speech, no Attitude in your voice suggesting everyone knows what you are talking about.. best yet, you showed us the sign in cut mode. Very impressed... loved the video.

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thank you so much for the kind words! We are still learning but doing our best help others along the way.

[@doughackett695]

Nice style text. Is that on the VCarve program? Also I can not see the name of the text. Very good lesson ! Thanks

[@jasonyannuccelli2499]

Thanks for that start to finish tutorial. Magic for a beginner like myself ... I'm Subscribed !!

[@stuartsherman5975]

Thank you for a very easy to follow video. Any recommendations on a budget friendly CNC machine to purchase to get started that carves approximately 24" x 24" signs? Any light you coyote provide souk be greatly appreciated.

[@EverwoodCreations]

We currently use an Axiom machine which is not exactly in the "budget friendly" category. We did start our CNC journey with a Shapeoko and we were happy with it for quite a while, we simply outgrew it. I know how overwhelming the options can be when you are starting out, but we only have experience with these two brands, so we can't really speak to the many other options out there these days. Good Luck!

[@handytbutler7380]

BEST TUTORIAL I HAVE SEE SO FAR..... just got a shark cnc and having a hard time figuring it out....

[@reddsmorris7053]

Liked your video and how strait forward you were. 2 questions, Didn't see you set speed you were going to carve. And 2 when you grouped the design would I do that if I use layers for a design?

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thanks Redds. The feeds and speeds will need to be calculated for your specific machine and bit. There are several calculators available online that should help. If you group vectors like I did, it will move all of them to the current layer, so you may want to be careful using the group option with layers.

[@rrshoeing]

Hi great video. How did the machine know how deep to cut if you didn't set the flat depth? Thanks.

[@EverwoodCreations]

This carving is done with a V-bit. The way those toolpaths work is that the depth is automatically calculated based on the width of the cut, unless you specify a flat depth, then it will go no deeper than that. If you are in your preview screen, you can mouse over any simulated cut and see the calculated depth in the bar down below. Hope this helps!

[@rrshoeing]

@@EverwoodCreations Thank you!!

[@fredjohn808]

Thank you Kerri, You 'are' my V carve go to, best on KZbin

[@bradleyjohnson452]

Great tutorial. Where do you define how deep to cut each of the objects?

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thanks Bradley. This sign is done with vcarving, which means that the depth is automatically determined by the software. If you want it to stop at a certain depth, you can put a value in the flat depth box at the top of the vcarve toolpath panel. If you are curious as to the depth of a cut, you can use the preview and mouse over areas and the depth will be shown at the bottom of the screen as the z value.

[@jimbrown8573]

What types of wood do you like to use most for signs and what thickness?

[@EverwoodCreations]

In my experience, hard woods always carve the best. My personal favorite is walnut, but we carve often on cherry and oak as well. Typically for signs and such, we use 3/4", but when we want thinner material, we go as far down as 1/4". Less than that doesn't leave much room for carving.

[@MichaelSmith-kp9ur]

Great tutorial, I am a beginner and this is just what I need. As said below it is good to see the whole process through to the actual carving. Subscribing is a no brainer!

[@larrydannatt7571]

Thanks great video and for showing the carve

[@jerrywilson573]

Nicely done. Another JC Wilson here

[@patriotwoodworker6092]

Thanks great video. I’m leaning toward vcarve. I have a shapeoko that I got built 2 months ago. Still haven’t made a single thing on yet. Having a hard time finding Mac friendly software

[@EverwoodCreations]

It's strange that Mac dominates the design world yet there hasn't been a great CNC hobby design tool made Mac compatible yet. Using a Shapeoko (which we started with) you can definitely take full advantage of Carbide Create to do a lot of design work. All of our early projects were done with it, but I understand your frustration, as it has it's limitations, hence why we switched to Vectric eventually. I haven't explored their new Carbide Pro version of the software as it didn't exist when we were using it, perhaps it is closer to Vectric? Good luck! I hope you get that machine running soon.

[@patriotwoodworker6092]

@@EverwoodCreations I’ve tried the carbide create and I find really user unfriendly. I don’t know crap about programming or this CNC stuff. I’m just a dumb woodworker. Lol. I need my software to be as KISS as possible. If I end up buying vcarve (the price tag ugh) I’ll rewatch your video a few times and do it with you. Thanks!

[@artmiller6799]

@@patriotwoodworker6092 Try using Parallels on your Mac, converts to PC. Art Miller

[@partykawoodworking8268]

Great video and instruction! The only thing I can't seem to wrap my head around is knowing where to place your material on the CNC bed. Is that the setting you selected to center and then knowing where the center is on the CNC itself? Thanks!

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thanks Partyka. Centering your material on the CNC bed is not necessary. What you will want to do is find the center of your material and make a mark there. Then you can put it anywhere on the machine bed just make sure it's square with the XY axis. Once it is there, you will manually tell the machine where the material center is by moving the bit to your mark in the center of the material (using your CNC control or computer controls depending what you have) and setting XY&Z to zero. Hope that makes sense.

[@partykawoodworking8268]

@@EverwoodCreations ahh okay that makes sense thank you!!!

[@EverwoodCreations]

You may find this video helpful kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4KzhppmfsylqKc Note that he is zeroing to the front left corner, much of what he does is not necessary when zeroing to the center because you just line up the tool with your mark in the center for all axis.

[@truth6027]

Hands down the best informative video on how to create a file in VCarve Pro. Is it possible for you to do a video on how to clean up an icon imported into VCarve? Etc. how to straighten out a circle and clean up letters? Hope to see more videos from you great job.

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thank you so much for the kind words. A video about cleaning up an import is a great idea, I'll definitely add it to my list.

[@stevegronsky8904]

Quality video nicely presented and easy to understand.

[@kd_design]

Very nice explanation! Maybe I get to use vcarve too

[@IH1940HAY]

Is there a reason that you just don’t delete rather than slide the art down and off the material. Thanks for such a well narrated videos and NOT getting off topic like so many presenters do.

[@EverwoodCreations]

Moving the art is simply my preference. I like to have it on the document as a reference, and so if I would need it again I don't have to re-import it. There's no other reason you have to keep it, so if you prefer deleting it go right on ahead.

[@customwalldisplay]

Looks fantastic!!!

[@charleswood2252]

Interested to know why you drag the bitmaps off the piece instead of utilising layers, any reason? Good job by the way

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thank you. I can't say there's a specific reason other than I don't tend to bother with layers on simple pieces. You make a good point though, it would definitely be an option.

[@carlmainwaring4349]

Thank you so much! I love how you go through the entire process. I just subscribed!

[@resorter66]

Hi Great video, when you ran the file on your cnc the bit you used looked bigger in dia than a .25 60 deg vbit looked like maybe a .5 bia v bit. Also how did you finish it. Jeff

[@EverwoodCreations]

Hi Jeff, we did use a 0.5", 60 degree vbit. We chose to finish the sign with Watco Danish Oil in Natural, and a spray on laquer.

[@daneilers739]

Very well done video and a speed that I really do appreciate. Good Job!!!

[@robertmartin5103]

Looking at purchasing a desktop version of VCarve - I have a Shapeoko xl with carbide create. Do you know if the 2 softwares are compatible and if you have to run V Carve online or not. Thanks and good video

[@EverwoodCreations]

We started our CNC journey with a Shapeoko, so I'm actually familiar with Carbide Create. It depends on what you mean by compatible, I do not think the project files from Carbide Create are compatible with VCarve as they are a file type (.c2d) that VCarve doesn't read (I even tried just now to make sure). However, you can use Carbide Motion with gcode files you make from VCarve, I've done that many times. To your second question, once you have Vectric VCarve Desktop, it should run just fine without internet access.

[@hassnainzafar5369]

Mam kindly make video on material setup how set depth of engraving and starting

[@greatwhitewing]

Well done. simple, concise and informative

[@gwargolet]

Awesome video

[@deweyradabaugh9219]

Very informative. Better than the videos that just play music and you just watch the pointer.

[@albreit69]

Very nice job for us beginners Thank you

[@IH1940HAY]

Are you using the STOP command how to pause and resume?

[@EverwoodCreations]

I am assuming you are referring to the CNC when we are clearing the sawdust. Our CNC machine has a handheld controller that has a pause button, not all machines do though.

[@iancrossley6637]

Hi, thanks for the video - very good. I have been wanting to do this for years but I'm not sure how to export it with the program I have (Signlab) Do you use a .DXF file to send to the router?

[@EverwoodCreations]

I have never used Signlab, sorry. I have always exported gcode for sending to the router.

[@cpayne1723]

I believe you can use EPS.

[@iancrossley6637]

@@EverwoodCreations Thanks for your reply. I now have V carve. Your bit looks really sharp, do you have a brand you can recommend?

[@EverwoodCreations]

@@iancrossley6637 We get most of our bits from Amana Tool, we feel like they are high quality at a reasonable price.

[@fryscountrylifechannel4437]

Great video, really liked that you included the actual carve. What kind of cnc do you have?

[@EverwoodCreations]

Thank you! We are currently using an Axiom AR6 Pro+. We've been very happy with its performance and plan on doing an in-depth review soon.

[@craneduelista]

Thank you for this great video!!

[@plozano224]

Where do you find the specific bit settings?

[@EverwoodCreations]

Most bits have the settings printed on the packaging somewhere, otherwise you can look up on the manufacturer's website.

[@mikescott16]

Thank you

[@harryseijo3231]

TY SO MUCH...YOU ARE GREAT

[@hudsonriverlee]

Some masking tape of spoil board, and same under sign, spread super glue between masking tape, then you can utilize a bit to make the outer border.

[@EverwoodCreations]

Great point, that's a good technique we have used in the past, and a great way to do the entire piece on the CNC.

[@BuckysCustoms]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@CarlJacobson]

Thank you, great tutorial!

[@fishfab]

What kind of wood are you using?

[@EverwoodCreations]

Hey Steve, we carved this sign out of kiln dried American Cherry that we get from a local sawmill. We love how cherry carves on the CNC.

[@williamdoll367]

I am a complete newbie to all this. so you pulled a picture out of bitmap. my question is: how do you get items into bitmap? my teacher once told me the only stupid question is the one not asked

[@EverwoodCreations]

All questions are welcome here! You can import more than just a bitmap file, you can import several picture files like jpg, tiff, png, etc. I go over this a little in the beginning of this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKq3mWWAidBgn8k. If you have a picture that isn't importing, you can open it in a photo editing software (inkscape is a good free option) and then use the "save as" option and change the format to one of the above. I hope this helps, feel free to ask any follow up questions if that doesn't solve your issue.

[@hughstout9951]

WILSOOOOOOOOOON Jokes aside, Good video, Mr. Wilson. 👍

[@fredscott413]

slow down.

[@geovanygillopez7536]

yo dis boring

[@williamdoll367]

how did you move the picture off leaving just the outline?

[@WoodExt]

Thank you for this great video!!