Acrylic Sign Tutorials

[momojito]

I am looking for information on how to make acrylic signs LED type. I thought I saw some good information on here or the Vectric Forum but can not find it. Can some one here give me some direction?
Thanks Bruce

[milo30]

I don't have the links saved on this computer but there is much information about them on the vectric site. Try some various search words there. If you don't find it by the time I get home, I will send you some saved links that I have for it. I know there is some information here that will be helpful with cutting speeds but I didn't save any of the links.

[momojito]

I searched on Vectric Forum but can not find info on how to carve on acrylic. I know their were some good posts that I have read in the past but can not find them again. Maybe some one that does this can post a how to. Would really appreciate this as I am sure others would. Are their any tutorials on how to do this from Vectric?
Thanks Bruce

[Keith Hodges]

Carving acrylic is as easy as any other material. Generally high travel speed, slow router speed to prevent melting. Line art and LOGOS such as sports LOGOS work well. Photos do not. I use 90 degree v bits for text and most carvings, but lately started using .125 ball nose for a smoother filled area. What specific info are you looking for and what type of carvings are you interested in?

[momojito]

Keith
What software are you using? Photo Vcarve Vcarve Pro etc. And Machining settings.
Read some of your stuff very helpful! Thanks for replying to my post. Are their any tutorials from Vectric that would help?
Thanks Bruce

[Keith Hodges]

Haven't seen any tutorials, but pretty simple actually. I use v carve pro 7. Convert jpg or other photo to vectors, create toolpath, save. Now step by step. Open v carve pro. Create a new file. Set the size of your project. Mine are usually 6 x 9 x .05. Click OK. Upper left in File operations, import bitmap for tracing. Once you import your bitmap, click on icon that looks like a bird, under Creat Vectors. Type of tracing is black and white. Click on your picture then move the slider bar under type of tracing to use. Slide until the picture is mainly lines, with as much mass removed as possible. You just want line art basically. Once you like the picture, bottom left click on preview. It'll show what the tool paths will look like. Click on close. Right click on image, select all vectors, and vectors will be in red lines. Click on toolpath tab on upper right. Click on v carve/engraving toolpath. Start depth 0.0, flat depth 0.02, tool, 90 degree v bit, bottom, click on calculate. Preview, then save toolpath. Load the saved file into your control box, and carve. Their are many things along the way you can change or experiment with, but these are the basics. Once you get them down you'll feel better about experimenting. There's a couple iPhone apps that turn photos into basically line art. One is phototosketch, and another sketch free. Both free, and do pretty good at turning a regular photo into something very similar to line art. Hope this helps. Play with it a bit, and if you have any questions, get back to me and I'll try to be more specific.

[momojito]

With the 90 degree V bit my guess is that you turn on your router to cut the design? You do not use it as a diamond bit drag. Am I correct about this??

[Keith Hodges]

Yes, that's correct, you always have the router running.