V-Carving Artwork & Letters with a CNC Router

V-carving on a CNC wood router creates an amazing hand carved look. The letters or artwork you V-carve will stand in relief of the background. This may look complicated, but it’s pretty straight forward, with a little instruction. We’re here to provide the instruction. We’ll show you how to create the design on VCarve software, and how to set up the cuts on a Laguna CNC machine.

Importing artwork

Amazingly, you can grab virtually any clip art from the web and import it into VCarve to work with. The clip art will need to be changed to vectors so it can be CNC cut, and we’ll show you how to do that, and how to refine the design so it looks good after it’s been cut.

Lettering

VCarve software includes a wide variety of fonts. Once the font has been chosen, you’ll learn how to locate the lettering on the project, and change its size as needed.

V-Carve on the CNC wood router

Setting up the design to create the v-carve includes correctly selecting the artwork and lettering, and choosing the right router bits. You’ll learn how to use a clearance tool to remove most of the waste, and what type of cutter makes the v-carve pop.

Set up the CNC machine

Next you’ll learn to correctly install router bits on the CNC machine, and how to zero the X, Y, and Z axes. You’ll also learn to how to secure your work to the table.

Want to know more?

If you’re wondering if a CNC is a worthwhile investment for your shop, check out our video that provides an overview of what a CNC machine can do for you. If you’re looking for help using VCarve software, check out our video about CNC machine programming tips.

5 Responses to “V-Carving Artwork & Letters with a CNC Router”

1. Ron July 25th, 2016

   In the video it didn’t appear that you had a sacrificial board between the work piece and the bed of the CNC. Don’t you need that when making cuts all the way through the work piece to prevent the bed from getting chewed up?

   Reply

   • Customer Service July 27th, 2016

     Hi, Ron. The Laguna machine does have an MDF spoil board. The top face of the board is slightly above the top of the T-tracks in the bed, allowing you to do through cuts.

     Reply

2. martinburns July 14th, 2016

   these cnc videos stop at about 19 or 20 minutes in and will not start up again

   Reply

   • Customer Service July 14th, 2016

     We are sorry to hear you are having trouble viewing the videos. Please contact us at 1-855-253-0822; our Customer Service Team would be happy to troubleshoot with you!

     Reply

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     George Vondriska July 20th, 2016

     It’s playing fine on my system.

     Reply