OWL Love You Forever

NOTE – This whole process is dependent on homing to the same position after each layer is carved so once homed on the Work Position use the “Last X/Y Position” button for the remaining cuts.

I have included the Easel project minus the text and the icon. These can be added using your own taste and style. I didn’t want to position them on the surface as it may confuse the method I used to complete the project.

I first carved the included easel project using a 2 stage carve starting with a 1/2" flat bottom roughing bit. There will be 1/4" of material removed from the majority of the surface so the bigger bit speeds up the process. As the overall size is about 5" X 9 1/2". I ran it 50ipm using a .05 cut depth per pass.

I then used a 1/8" straight bit for the detail cut. I used the straight bit because it was the only one I had that would cut the the full thickness of the 7/8" white oak I wanted to use. Obviously, this can be made from thinner stock but I wanted it to fairly stable standing on edge so the wider width helps. I used the same cut settings as above.

Do not reset the machine as you need to use the same X/Y Work Position for adding the text

Make a copy of the Easel project and add the text and graphics to your your taste using the layout as a template – minus any text in the small heart. Then delete (or raise to zero) everything but the text and icon. Set the dept of cut on them. I used a 60 degree V-bit and cut .05" deep.

NOTE! The text and graphic should be the only thing visible – everything else should be deleted or totally white. You must set the Z depth to the CUT SURFACE TOP where you want the text – not the original Work Position Z level. Carve the text and Icon.

Then go back to the original easel project and make another copy. This time add the text on the small heart. Then again delete everything but the text in the heart. The text here is small so I used a .02 depth of cut. Again you must set the Z height on the actual heart surface for this to work. If the text does not cut quite deep enough you should be able to reset you z zero and adjust the dept to .03.

If this get screwed up – maybe too deep and the text gets over cut just go back to the 1/8’ bit and cut the heart bottom a little deeper to “erase” the mistake and try adding the text again.

I actually used F-Engrave to add the text and icon. I wanted to use a font not available in Easel and do a V-carve (name in heart was done in Easel). In order to do this I needed to find the “center” of the text and icon. To do that I created mock up in Easel using a similar font and layout.

But I couldn’t just select them and look at the center coordinates as the angled “Mommy” causes an odd shaped selection. To compensate I drew a box just large enough to cover the text and icon and looked at it’s center coordinates and the box’s size noted them. Using Easel I jogged the spindle to that center location.

I then used a drawing program to created the text and icon in a box the same size. Once done I deleted the box and saved it as a BMP. ( To get the owl icon into the drawing app I used Windows 10’s snipping tool to grab the image)

I brought the BMP into F-Engrave and entered the height as found in Easel. I set F-Engrave to use the Mid Center starting point not the default lower left. I used the settings for a 1/8" V-bit and created the G-code. I then loaded the code into UGS Platform and with the bit still centered from Easel did the cut.