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January 26, 2011
CNC Carving a 3D Face
COMPLETED
This project shows the use of Vectric Aspire to create a 3D Carving taken from the photograph of a persons face.
I had done this sort of thing previously but a lot smaller due to the size limitations of my Sherline CNC Mill. Now I have the larger capacity CNC Router I was time to test it out on a larger scale. This was the first wood routing/carving project for the new machine.
I started with a high contrast B&W full front on face photo. The first thing I had to do was some editing of the photo to manipulate the contrast of some sections, like the eyes, hair and lips. This is so that the Aspire program will produce more realistic carving depths for these arias. I also added the text name at the bottom of the photo so that it was going to be one single carving process.
After doing all this I use Aspire to create a 3D Model of the face and generate the G-Code that is then sent to the CNC Router. For this job I use a 4mm Ball Nose 2F mill for the initial roughing pass and switched to a 3mm Ball Mill for the final finishing pass. I also engraved the back with my Logo and some other inscriptions. I cleaned and buffed the surface using a Dremel Tool and soft brush attachment, then used a light furniture oil to bring up the contrast and grain. I was really pleased with the final result, unfortunately the photos don't do it full justice. In the photos below I have purposely removed Callan's surname.
As a final part to this story I must say that I did have a problem during the making of this project, sort of my own creation. During the roughing pass the computer monitor was flickering on and off then half way through it went off all together, however the router looked to still be going well so I just let it run with my fingers crossed it would complete this pass OK. Once completed and the tool back to its home position I shut the whole system down and started it up again. I then proceeded to poke around trying to figure out why the monitor was flickering on and off. Thinking it might be a grounding problem I inadvertently placed a wire between what I thought was two earth or negative rail points, I was wrong and there was a zap and I burnt out on of the stepper motor control Ic's. The machine then sat idle for a week waiting for a replacement IC to arrive so I could repair the controller board. In the mean time I was very careful not to upset the X or Y zero axis so that I could initiate the finishing pass without any alignment problems. Fortunately it all worked out. The monitor has since not given me any problem so can only assume that in pulling the computer apart to repair the CNC Controller board I must have moved something and fixed it. Perhaps the display board was not seated in its socket correctly or samething like that.
