Half tone cnc

Need something to decorate your cnc workspace ?
Here's something simple that only needs a bit of flat material and whatever paint/stain you have on hand.

 On the left is M.C. Escher's "Eye".  The item to the right is a reproduction of the sexiest automobile ever produced (in my biased opinion).  The eye is a piece of varnished ply,  spray painted black before carving.  The Jaguar is a piece of shelving veneered with white melamine, blackboard paint fills in the dots.  Both were cut with a 90 degree v-bit.

The effect created is hard to photograph,  easier to explain.  Up close it's pattern of dots,  at a distance the dots become an indistinguishable part of the image.  These work best outdoors or in a large room.  Inch size dots on a building size canvas would be an awesome display. 

The software used is full of features and at the same  time simple enough to be self-explanatory.  Thank you Jason Dorie,  here's the link:
http://jasondorie.com/page_cnc.html

 

 

Edge Lit LED Engravings

The material used is 3/8" cast acrylic from an unknown manufacturer.  Other plastics may also work but cast cuts nicely and the  thicker material adds visual depth.

The dxf file can be found here:
http://s3.cnccookbook.com/free-dxf-files-vehicles.html

Screenshot from Fusion 360

The cutting file was created in Fusion 360.  The original dxf file was edited to  contour around the top of the car.  The contour was cut with a 1/4" 2 flute end mill. The etching was done with a 'trace' toolpath using a 90 degree v-bit cutter at 0.012" depth.  A depth of 0.006" or 0.008" would have created finer detail making tidier work of the CAMARO text.  Notice the text (and the car) are a mirror image because the engraving is on the 'back side',  or in other words the display side is an uncut surface.

The Lotus Bloom engraving was a test cut.  It's the top of a laminar fountain nozzle which may be described in a future blog entry.

The LED lights are cut off a spool of strip lighting commonly found on EBay or Amazon.  A two section piece can be seen in front of the Camaro in the photo below.

Bad photo background,  what looks like dirt or scratches is really the dust shoe brush on my router.  The power is supplied by a 12V wall wart.  The 4 position switch was salvaged from a multi-function flashlight.  The colors available with this switch are red, green and white. (Is white a color?).