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Our friend Peter at New Brit Workshop has put together an awesome series about building his 750 mm X-Carve step-by-step. Now that his machine is assembled, he’s hosting a contest!
You can watch his full video to see how he made his project in VCarve Pro, or you can tune in at 10:30 in the video for what he’s envisioning for the contest (this video starts right at the 10:30 mark if you want to hear the rules):
The contest:
Design an Easel file that replicates Peter’s picture frame project. You don’t need to carve the project, you just need to show others how to design the file using only Easel and/or Easel Pro Take a screencast showing how you designed your project and share it in this forum thread (you may find it easiest to upload to YouTube first and then share the YouTube URL in this thread).
The contest ends January 31, 2018 (at 11:59 pm CST). We will review all the screencasts posted in this thread and announce the winner in early February. The winner receives a $50 Inventables gift code and Peter will post your YouTube URL in the description of his video so others can see it!
Feel free to submit multiple project screencasts…and add something cool or personalized to your picture frame!
Remember: all Easel account holders can design with Easel Pro features, which means you can use v-carving and v-bits for your contest submission!
P.S. - You may find our 11/17 Easel Live class (this Friday!) helpful for your contest submission!
Can you verify whether the frame’s thickness is 15mm or 17mm (I’m not sure whether or not the 6mm includes the 2mm straight part… it looks like it does, so the whole thing is 15mm thick)?
Also, what are the dimensions of the pocket? Only the depth is shown. The pocket appears to extend beyond the outside of the chamfered area, but there’s no indication of how much, or whether that’s even true.
As for the video, do we need to record an explanation of our steps, or just provide the screencast of our actions as we plan the carve in Easel Pro?
The actual dimensions are not critical. I really expect people to show how they use Easel to make a similar picture frame which requires those 3 toolpaths - the first with the 90 degree “V” cutter to produce the chamfer, the second to put a defined edge on what will be the inside of that chamfer and then the rebate cut from the rear to take the glass, picture and backing piece.
I have made the inner dimensions 146 mm x 96 mm which is just right for a 6" x 4" picture. I was able to guarantee the size of this by setting up the second toolpath in VCarve Pro to cut on the inside of a rectangle 146 x 96.
The rebate extends beyond the chamfered area, I have not measured by how much but that can be a judgement call by those making a similar frame as it has to hold the glass and backing piece.
What I did not do in my demonstration, as it would have been unfair for this challenge, was to take the chamfer cut right into the corners to give a mitred corner effect. This is an option with “V” cutters in VCarve Pro which I do not believe is possible with Easel.
Oh…thank you. I may have been over-thinking this challenge a bit! But in my defense, a thousand decades ago, my graphic arts teacher asked members of the class to each reproduce a project, and I did what I thought was a reasonable facsimile of the original and turned it in. Then he proceeded to measure every dimension for accuracy. I did not do well on that assignment, but I learned something. And here we are.
And this is exactly the part I’ve been trying to figure out. It kept me awake 2 nights ago thinking about possibly writing an Easel ‘app’ that would calculate and add that angled cut into the corners. We’ll see…
We’d like to congratulate @BlueLocktite for winning the contest! Despite your claim that it was a “dumpster fire,” your video was very easy to follow and provided excellent instructions for how to build this design in Easel.
He was not afraid to highlight his mistakes which would help others avoid making those same errors
He successfully demonstrated that Easel can be used for multi-cutter and double-sided projects
Congratulations again! You will receive your gift code via email today. Feel free to reach out to me if you do not see it in a few hours. Thanks again for your efforts and for teaching others these Easel tricks!
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!