Original subtitles

recently i've had a lot of people ask me

questions about the actual process of

using my cnc and making a carving

questions such as what software do you

use what feeds and speeds do you use and

where do you get the files and designs

for carvings

so in today's video i'm going to cover

all that and more by making a complete

step-by-step walkthrough of how i start

with an idea in my head

and turn it into a finished product

using my 3018 cnc

before we begin i just want to take a

moment to ask you to subscribe

a lot of hard work goes into each one of

my videos but only about one percent of

my viewers are actually subscribed

so it's very much appreciated if you

support the channel by subscribing

and with that being said let's get

started

so the first step to this whole process

of making a project with my cnc is an

idea

and if you're looking for projects to

make or out of ideas the best advice i

can give you

is to just look around the internet

there are plenty of cnc communities you

can follow on different platforms and

even watching these videos

might give you some inspiration on what

to make

as for what project we're going to be

making today i saw a recent comment

asking if this machine is suitable

for making a small christmas tree

ornament and although christmas has

already passed

that sounds like a great idea and is of

course a perfect small project for this

machine

so today we're going to try and make it

after you've decided what you're going

to make

in my case a small christmas tree

ornament you have to figure out what

material you're going to make it from

what is good for most projects including

artwork and that's what we're going to

be using today

however depending on your project you

might want to use a different material

such as aluminum or plastic

if your part needs to be stronger or

water resistant instead i'm going to

pick something that's a solid piece of

wood like this floorboard sample i found

in my scraps bin

with all that out of the way we can log

into a computer and start creating the

design for a christmas tree ornament

for this project and for most other

projects i use easel

easel is a free online software made by

inventables and is used for 2d or 2

and a half d cnc work if you're using

easel for the first time

you'll need to create an inventibles

account and install a driver for your

cnc

but that's pretty much all the setup

needed in terms of software

now that we have easel open we can start

creating our project

this online software has many useful

tools to help you create carvings

the shape tool as is hopefully

self-evident can create shapes

[Music]

the text tool can create text of

different sizes and fonts

[Music]

and the image tool can be used to turn

an image into a carving

there are a few settings for each of

these tools that you might want to play

around with but i won't be covering them

in this video

because they could take up a whole video

just on their own however

these tools are pretty easy to learn so

i suggest you play around with them and

see what the software can do

for today's project we're going to be

first engraving the design that we want

on our ornament using the image

conversion tool

and then second cutting out the overall

ornament shape out of a piece of wood

using of course the shape tool here i

have the image i want to put on my

carved ornament

it's a simple christmas tree i found on

google and if you're following along at

home

you can use whatever design or image you

want you can also find simplified 2d

images of objects by adding

dxf to your google search

i'm going to import this image

adjust some settings to make it look

right

and position it on my build plate

i will select either cut on perimeter

interior exterior or pocket cut

based on whatever looks best for my

image in my case i'll select cut on

shape path

in hindsight this wasn't the best idea

as the cnc carves every line twice

and it doesn't turn out to look very

clean in the final product

so i'd advise against doing what i did

here

since this first cut we'll be doing more

engraving on the surface rather than

actual cutting i'll set the cut depth to

1 16 of an inch deep

as for cut settings the material size

and type can be set in this menu in the

next menu

the type of bit can be set i will use

one of these small v bits to engrave

this part of the project

however i will configure it as a normal

132nd bit in easel

in the last menu i usually use the

default settings for feed rate

and depth of cut but because i have an

upgraded 500 watt spindle

i can increase these values a little by

selecting manual

if you want to see the video where i

upgrade my spindle motor to this 500

watt spindle

i left a link to the 500 watt spindle

upgrade video in the description

below when you hit carve the software

will take you through an intuitive

step-by-step guide to starting your

carving

first we clamp down the material we want

to cut or engrave to the bed of our cnc

we will also add a piece of wood called

a spoiler board under our work material

so that we can cut all the way through

the work in a later cnc operation

second you will need to insert your

desired tool into the collet of the cnc

and tighten it in our case this will be

a v-bit

and last the zero point of the cnc needs

to be set the zero point is the place

where the carving will start at the

bottom left of the work material

this is also an important setting to get

right because if it isn't set correctly

the carving will go shallower or deeper

into the wood than desired

[Music]

after starting the carving make sure the

cup begins as you want it and it's

suggested to keep a very close eye on

your cnc as it carves

because you want to be nearby if

something goes wrong

now a few words of caution and

recommendations as you use your cnc

you might want to think about investing

a few extra dollars into a better usb

cable than the one that comes with your

machine

in my case the cheap cable caused me

many headaches of jobs

stopping in the middle for no apparent

reason or in the worst case the bit

driving down

into the cnc table when i switched out

the usb cable the problem stopped so i

think it's definitely a worthwhile

investment

it's also recommended that you have some

kind of enclosure surrounding your cnc

so that while carving chips getting

sprayed everywhere don't make a mess

when i was first starting out with my

cnc i would just hold a vacuum near the

cutting head to suck up all the chips

when carving

but that was a little time consuming to

just sit there and vacuum for 15 minutes

while the carving was going so i

currently use this large tub to contain

all the chips until after the carving is

finished

i'll vacuum up the chips and it looks

like this i ended up running this

operation for a second time just to

clean up the carving

now we will repeat the same process of

creating a design in easel and carving

it

but this time we'll cut out the outer

shape of the ornament

back in easel we will choose the shape

we want to cut out in my case i'll

choose a triangle because it fits my

christmas tree well

in order to cut all the way through the

material we will set the cut depth to be

slightly deeper than the thickness of

the material on our cnc

[Music]

as per cut settings for this cut i will

be using a 1 8 inch square end mill so

that's the type of bit i'll select

in the last menu i will again use

slightly higher than default feed rate

and depth per pass

because i have an upgraded 500 watt

spindle after clicking carve we can

change the bit to the correct end mill

and set the zero point of the cnc once

again this zero point should not be

moved from where the last cnc operation

ended so both

operations are lined up with one another

to switch out the bit however

i had to move the work away from the

cutting head

to ensure that the zero point will be

lined up i kept track of how far i moved

the cnc

and moved it back after i was finished

swapping out the end mill

easel has a feature where you can adjust

the speed that the bit moves

after you've started a cnc job you can

adjust the feed rate manually during the

carving

if your cnc is going too fast or too

slow if you're getting a lot of chatter

you can slow down the feed rate

but alternatively you can speed up the

feed rate if the bit is rubbing

this is important to fix because if the

bit is rubbing it will cause the tool to

heat up and shorten its lifespan

i originally didn't leave enough of the

end mill sticking out of the collet

chuck

so i couldn't cut all the way through

the material i had to restart

this operation a second time with more

stakeout to finish cutting the ornament

out

after vacuuming up all the chips this is

how the final ornament turned out

[Music]

the other side doesn't look great

because i didn't start with a flat piece

of wood on both sides

and the ornament is overall very thick

if i wanted this to turn out even better

i could have started with a solid piece

of wood that was thin

and flat on both sides and repeated the

engraving on the opposite side as well

i could have also made the carving lines

not double wide on my design

however this was just a proof of concept

showing what the cnc can do

there are lots of other small projects

just like this one that this type of

beginner cnc

can also be used for some of these

projects include custom made coasters

gifts such as the one i made for

mother's day link in the description

and fun toys such as this tilt maze your

imagination is the only limit to what

you can make with the cnc

so armed with the knowledge from this

video go out and make some fun projects

of your own

i hope this beginner's guide was useful

to anyone starting out in the cnc world

but if i left something important out of

the video or if you have any unanswered

questions

you can leave those in the comments down

below and i will try my best to answer

them

remember to like share and subscribe and

if you want to see a part 2

where i show you the process of 3d

printing from start to finish

you can let me know that in the comments

section down below thanks for watching

and i'll catch you in the next video

you