I-Carver CNC Project Computer Directions Rob MacIlreith Last Update Oct 2017
READ THIS ENTIRE SLIDE FIRST Make sure you follow all the directions carefully. Mistakes in programming your design can be disastrous for the machine. DO NOT SKIP ANY STEP! For the few people that are doing the Hockey Puck version of the project there are different numbers for you a couple of times. Hockey Pucks must be NEW and in my freezer for 24 hours before cutting.
Open Paint.Net we will be using this software to create our CNC designs.
Click File and then New from the drop down menu to open this box.
Change these numbers to match. These numbers set the maximum size of our project area. This matches the size of the piece of wood I will give you. Click OK. Note: Doing a Hockey Puck? Set Width to 3.00 and Height to 3.00
The screen redraws a smaller working matching the size of the work area we have just set up. Click the new layer button to create a second layer. Layers will give us an easy way to delete mistakes. Every time we create something new on our object we should put it on a different layer.
1) I added a new layer and took the time to rename it to help me stay organized. (Double click on the layer to rename it) 2) Click the T for Text button. Check the example text carvings to see what works well. Layers NOTE: The layer that is highlighted in blue is the layer you are working on you can only make changes to that layer. If you want to delete a layer. Click the red x. make sure to replace it with a new layer. 3) Make sure that your text is the way you want it to be and in the place you want it to be. Once you leave the text box, it cannot be edited easily. Moving the text box is using the + button in the bottom left corner of the text box. Remember to leave some space for your round over or chamfer router cut after carving is complete.
I moved my text to the location I wanted in my design and now I am going to put a graphic on the design as well. Notice I created a graphic layer and named it as well. Note: When placing text and graphics, leave space around the edge of your graphic so you have space to round over or chamfer the edge of your design with the router.
Graphics Note: Keep your graphics simple. The darker the color of the design, the deeper it is cut in the wood. Black is the deepest cut, white is not cut at all. Black and white graphics or clip art work best. Photos do not work well. Hand drawn and scanned images will work. To reduce your workload make sure that the paper is very clean and that your image is drawn with a black marker. Note: There can be a lot of clean up needed to make hand drawn scanned images good quality.
Use the paint tools to clean up anything in your design you may need to at this point.
I am done design work and am saving my project. Make sure you save it as a.jpg file in your final save. If you are saving but are not done you must save as a.pdn file so you can continue to work with layers. Make sure all saving is in your D Drive! Look for Drive D over here, under computer. File name is your first and last. IMPORTANT: READ* After you press OK, a new window opens. (Not shown in directions) Adjust the Quality slider to 100% when saving as JPG and when prompted click the flatten option. This combines all the layers into one image.
Next close Paint.Net Click Start, All Programs, scroll down the program list to the I Picture folder. Open the folder and launch I Picture. Note: There is no I Picture icon on the desktop at this time.
I Picture opens as a little box like this on the screen. My desktop looks different than yours because this tutorial was made at my house not in the lab.
**First open your image. ** Change this box to Inches Make sure this tool is selected. Pick the middle origin position, this tells the cutter to draw from the middle of the diagram. This will make it easier later.
Yours should look similar to this now. Now we are going to change some critical numbers. It is important that you make sure your numbers are right. Change project size numbers to read 5.75 x 3.833 x 0.031 Note: Doing the Hockey Puck set project size as: 2.75 x 2.75 x 0.031 These are limit numbers we have just set to make sure the cutting tool stays within our 6x4 piece of wood and we set the depth that it can cut into the wood as 0.031 (0.8mm)
Now click preview. Click OK in both (2) of the pop up boxes that that will appear 1 after the other. Next a work piece preview will appear in a couple of minutes looking like mine.
You can zoom in by using the mouse roller ball and you can click and grab to rotate the Design around and see the tool path that the computer has programmed for carving. Get The teacher to double check this with you! If it looks good, click the X and close the preview window. Then click the Convert button in I Picture. Click OK in the pop up that appears. I Picture takes a couple of minutes And then prompts you for a save name and Location. Save to the D:\ Drive, use your first and last Name as your filename. Once the GEE code is saved you can close I Picture
Finished with I Picture Get a flash drive from the instructor. Copy and Paste your final GEE code file from the D Drive to the flash drive. (You may have to put it in a folder on the drive). Get a block of wood from the instructor. Find the center of the block of wood (use the diagonal crossed lines method, do not measure!) You are ready to proceed with the flash drive and wood to the I Carver where your instructor will walk you through mounting the wood, loading the file on the I Carver, Zeroing the I Carver, checking the border and carving the project.