CNC (Lasers, Routers, Etc)

Hekotat · May 11, 2020

Bandwagon said:
Hey Hekotat - I haven't tried engraving a map made using edge detection yet, but I got slightly better results on the rasters by creating some different layers. Still a long ways off and I figured out afterwards that my laser was dirty anyways, but a little bit of progress I suppose.

I was about to order some metallic prints for work from Bay Photo when I saw color prints on wood there, so I started looking at some DIY methods of transferring photos to wood. I've got a couple tests going right now using modge podge & liquitex. Maybe this will end up being the route to go for 3d topos. I really like the idea of everything being engraved, but I've been banging my head against the wall trying to get rasters to work well for months now.

It seems like a pain in the ass to learn, but if you can master it you'll be making bank.

I just picked up a 3D printer to supplement items I make at work, just got it together and I'm about to level the bed and attempt to print something. Got a stack of Carbon Fiber to print once I figure out what the fuck I'm doing.

Bandwagon · May 12, 2020

k^M said:
Gf has a ton of modge podge though so if you wind up finding a cool success there and want to post it, would be curious to try it out too.

Very half-assed first test, but looks promising.

The Liquitex base is matte white instead of transparent because that's all they had at the store, but I ordered some transparent liquitex gel base after trying this. The paper was MUCH easier to peel off of the liquitex and I'm guessing I wouldn't have scraped away as much of the ink if I'd used more of the base. I did a really thin application. The 2nd modge podge one that I did on the left looks a lot better than the first, but the paper is a bitch to clean off of both of them. I'm not sure if I let it dry all of the way, though. I'm going to try printing these out on transfer paper next week.

I think that the final result will look cooler doing it this way if I can get it to work well, but it's going to be more of a pain in the ass to make each one. I really wanted to get the black & white engraving to work.

This guy's voice is kind of annoying, but this is what I'm going to follow. Just ordered the same material & parchment paper.

k^M · May 12, 2020

For B&W engraving, I've had success on some things and failed others. One thing I would say if you are interested is check a few of the pre-made photo edit packages people have made that do it for a living.

FB has god knows how many laser/glowforge groups but the one I'm in has a guy who sells his for like 10-15 and it is a one click convert picture to B&W with the right settings. Can probably find that online for free, or if you are already a photo edit guru DIY. All I know is I'm bad at getting the right grayscale nonsense to make it work reliably.

Bandwagon · May 12, 2020

k^M said:
For B&W engraving, I've had success on some things and failed others. One thing I would say if you are interested is check a few of the pre-made photo edit packages people have made that do it for a living.

FB has god knows how many laser/glowforge groups but the one I'm in has a guy who sells his for like 10-15 and it is a one click convert picture to B&W with the right settings. Can probably find that online for free, or if you are already a photo edit guru DIY. All I know is I'm bad at getting the right grayscale nonsense to make it work reliably.

Can I beg you for a link along those lines? I've searched for something like that before but didn't even see a glimmer of what I was wanting.

k^M · May 13, 2020

Glowforge User Group (GUG) (not sure if this works) for the FB group & JBs Glowforge Photoshop Actions - Installation, Playing, Advanced Features looks like the direct URL to the one I was thinking of. I haven't used it personally as I don't have photoshop, but it seems highly valued by the masses there

Bandwagon · May 13, 2020

k^M said:
Glowforge User Group (GUG) (not sure if this works) for the FB group & JBs Glowforge Photoshop Actions - Installation, Playing, Advanced Features looks like the direct URL to the one I was thinking of. I haven't used it personally as I don't have photoshop, but it seems highly valued by the masses there

Ahhh, bummer. I don't have photoshop either. I'll ask someone from Marketing if they can try this out for me. Thanks K k^M !

edit: Ahhh, he's on the glowforge forums, too. I just sent him a message to ask if he could run one of my maps through his toolchain first to see if it'll work.

Bandwagon · May 14, 2020

Pretty slow at work because we're waiting on a lot of the transportation projects to start back up, so Marketing gave me free reign to make some 11x17 knick knacks. I may have taken a bit of a detour to make one for my girls, though...

k^M · May 26, 2020

Kind of in the realm of sublimination, but have you done any work in the realm of overlaying an image on top of a 3d model? I'm not even sure how to phrase that search in google to get a result that matches what I'm trying to do.

Example, trying to make a star destroyer (already made one, came out fun & gifting some to friends) and wanting to etch/score in the imperial logo over the top but the problem comes in the 3d part. If each piece was side by side, adding in artwork is as easy as slapping it on and lining up the borders so the image flows evenly from one to the next. In this, trying to have it cascade down each level of the hull so that only the image on that piece is carved out.

Tried to get a semi-close resemblence done but its just in appearance as the 2nd picture is just a "top down" view as it were. Not sure what step I'm missing in the goal of smash, cut, unsmash & cut but thought I'd ask in case you had ventured into that realm already.

Bandwagon · May 26, 2020

k^M said:
Kind of in the realm of sublimination, but have you done any work in the realm of overlaying an image on top of a 3d model? I'm not even sure how to phrase that search in google to get a result that matches what I'm trying to do.

Example, trying to make a star destroyer (already made one, came out fun & gifting some to friends) and wanting to etch/score in the imperial logo over the top but the problem comes in the 3d part. If each piece was side by side, adding in artwork is as easy as slapping it on and lining up the borders so the image flows evenly from one to the next. In this, trying to have it cascade down each level of the hull so that only the image on that piece is carved out.

Tried to get a semi-close resemblence done but its just in appearance as the 2nd picture is just a "top down" view as it were. Not sure what step I'm missing in the goal of smash, cut, unsmash & cut but thought I'd ask in case you had ventured into that realm already.

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Not by hand, no. You could 3d model it from a video and create a low poly 3d model with a texture file, but I'm sure that's not the easiest way to do it.

I can think of a way to do it if you're creating the textures yourself from scratch, but I'm guessing you know how to do that as well. If you're trying to take am existing texture, I can't think of a way to do it that doesn't involve the overly-complex SfM route I would try.

Bandwagon · May 26, 2020

k^M said:
Kind of in the realm of sublimination, but have you done any work in the realm of overlaying an image on top of a 3d model? I'm not even sure how to phrase that search in google to get a result that matches what I'm trying to do.

Example, trying to make a star destroyer (already made one, came out fun & gifting some to friends) and wanting to etch/score in the imperial logo over the top but the problem comes in the 3d part. If each piece was side by side, adding in artwork is as easy as slapping it on and lining up the borders so the image flows evenly from one to the next. In this, trying to have it cascade down each level of the hull so that only the image on that piece is carved out.

Tried to get a semi-close resemblence done but its just in appearance as the 2nd picture is just a "top down" view as it were. Not sure what step I'm missing in the goal of smash, cut, unsmash & cut but thought I'd ask in case you had ventured into that realm already.

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Actually.....could you use sketchup to push/pull the design down to cut it out of each piece, and do the same to a 2nd model with different shading, then merge them back together?

k^M · May 27, 2020

I've never used Sketchup but I can take a look, I'm sure it's going to involve doing that kind of nonsense with multiple models and that's fine. Just irritating trying to figure that out without a guide at least outlining some concepts

Bandwagon · May 27, 2020

k^M said:
I've never used Sketchup but I can take a look, I'm sure it's going to involve doing that kind of nonsense with multiple models and that's fine. Just irritating trying to figure that out without a guide at least outlining some concepts

I've thought about trying to do something similar and wondered if there were any tools to do it, but never really went hunting. Have you seen the graffiti artists that do pieces that look 3d from a certain perspective? I wanted to see if I could find one that outlined the process, but never went looking.

k^M · May 27, 2020

That's similar but not quite the same, they do some ridiculously cool things with shading for sure. Some of those look like photoshopped work given how good they are

Bandwagon · Jul 10, 2020

Haven't been using the laser much lately because we're waiting to move in to a new house and I'm just excited to work on it in a garage, but I made these last night. Took the pictures on Monday and Tuesday of this week....

k^M · Jul 10, 2020

Those look pretty nice. Did you wind up just fiddling with settings and retesting over and over till it came out clean? Or end up going with someones pre-made settings jig for photo conversion to black & white

Bandwagon · Jul 10, 2020

k^M said:
Those look pretty nice. Did you wind up just fiddling with settings and retesting over and over till it came out clean? Or end up going with someones pre-made settings jig for photo conversion to black & white

I use lunapic to convert them to a sketch style photo filter thing. I still havent been able to get black and white to engrave well at all, so still no luck with the maps

k^M · Jul 10, 2020

What kind of settings were you using for that level of detail? Seems like it'd take a significant amount of time.

Bandwagon · Jul 10, 2020

k^M said:
What kind of settings were you using for that level of detail? Seems like it'd take a significant amount of time.

1.5 hour engrave. 170 lines per inch, full power and full speed (glowforge settings)

Hekotat · Aug 3, 2020

Not really CNC, but here's the case I'm working on, it's going to be 3D printed with Carbon Fiber. I'm currently testing fitting with Nylon to ensure fitment before printing with the much more expensive Carbon Fiber. I really like the NZXT H1 case so I'm somewhat replicating that in form factor but with my own spin. It will contain 2x 240 rads with a custom loop for the CPU and GPU with a custom distro plate for the resevoir.

This is about the 6th or 7th iteration of this case, I was looking at doing it on the CNC machines at work then realized it was going to cost about 500 bucks in materials and that's with no trail & error. I was happy with the previous version then realized it would not fit on my print bed so I had to go a bit smaller which is making some things a wee bit difficult.

Current dimensions
17.724" x 9" x 9"

slippery · Aug 3, 2020

Hekotat said:
Not really CNC, but here's the case I'm working on, it's going to be 3D printed with Carbon Fiber. I'm currently testing fitting with Nylon to ensure fitment before printing with the much more expensive Carbon Fiber. I really like the NZXT H1 case so I'm somewhat replicating that in form factor but with my own spin. It will contain 2x 240 rads with a custom loop for the CPU and GPU with a custom distro plate for the resevoir.

This is about the 6th or 7th iteration of this case, I was looking at doing it on the CNC machines at work then realized it was going to cost about 500 bucks in materials and that's with no trail & error. I was happy with the previous version then realized it would not fit on my print bed so I had to go a bit smaller which is making some things a wee bit difficult.

Current dimensions
17.724" x 9" x 9"

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I would make you sure you plan your water cooling runs, and I'd think about trying to piece something together the size and make sure you'll actually be able to make things fit

CNC (Lasers, Routers, Etc)

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