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Christmas sign

21 likes
274 opens
124 copies
615 downloads 2 comments
Steven Paxman

Project by

Steven Paxman

General Information

Carved with a 60-degree v-bit in 1/4" HDPE. This stuff is black with a white core, so carving through the outer layer exposes the white inside and automatically.

Like this project Open in Easel®
Material Description Price
Two-Color HDPE - Black on White

Two-Color HDPE - Black on White

Thickness: 1/4 in, Dimensions: 8 in × 12 in

$6.77

Add to Cart

$6.77
from Inventables

File Description Unit Price

wise men still seek him gcode file.gcode

V-carve g code file, 60 degree v-bit

$0

Download Zip

$0
from Inventables

1

Watch a quick carve video

1 minute

Enjoy watching my x-carve cut this sign into HDPE.

2

Mount your HDPE

1 minute

This sign uses 1/4" HDPE, black surface with white core. Mount it well. I use double-sided carpet tape.

3

Carve the sign

7 minutes

There are two ways to carve this. The Easel file (linked above) will carve the sign with a simple pocket using a 1/32" end mill. This will take quite a while because of the small bit. You could adjust it to do a roughing and final pass carve as well.

The other option is the use the g-code file attached above. That g-code is set up to use a 60 degree v-bit to v-carve this sign. Created in Vcarve Desktop. It expects 8×12 HDPE, 1/4" thick, with the bit set against the top of the material in the lower left corner, as usual. It carves in a single pass.

Using an air compressor while carving can help keep the chips from melting into the freshly carved grooves. To be honest, I think I ran this too slow. You should carve at a fast feed rate, with slow spindle speed to minimize melting. I had plenty of cleanup to do.

4

Clean up

I used tweezers to pick out the bits of plastic that were still hanging on after carving. Took me a while to get it clean to my satisfaction. Undoubtedly, running it at a faster feed-rate would have helped here, but it could just be that HDPE will always need a bit of clean-up. The V-Carved letters and image make it look great, but it will also be pretty good with a simple pocket mill.

Douglas Harrison
Thanks, carved in oak. Looks GREAT!
Douglas Harrison
Jason Zolnierz
this looks great! I was trying to open in easel and it will not open and the zip file is empty.
Jason Zolnierz