Ahhh, the last minute Christmas gift (a.k.a. a gift card). I hate gift cards but this year, I was lucky enough to create a 6-inch diameter gift box, in the design of an Oreo cookie, with 6 hours to spare before wrapping it up.
And, I wanted to share said project with y’all. I have uploaded the Vectric VCarve Pro 11.504 CRV file, the SVG vector file, and a JPG screenshot of the Vectric rendering. Sorry I was pressed for time and forgot to get photos. But I will say, after screwing up the lid the first two times, I was able to optimize the toolpaths and I can verify that (using the bits I did) these vectors are very clean and I only needed one “cleanup” toolpath which is named as such. Total machine time was around 3.5 hours with 2-ish of that being the Oreo carving.
Now for the disclaimer; although this may appear to be something for free, I am afraid there are some of you who may end up having to pay because…I use metric for all measurements. Apologies in advance for that.
As far as the Vectric file, it is a two-sided project with everything on layers and registration holes for flippping the workpiece over. After secureing the piece of wood, I drilled the “top” side version of the holes, all the way through the board and slightly into my wasteboard. I then drilled the “bottom” side of the holes into my wasteboard as well. So with all 8 holes in my wasteboard, I can flip the workpiece over as many times as I want and can mass produce them this was as well. Once the registration holes are in the workpiece, I started with the bottom side; engraving the year and my signature along with the underside of cavity of the lid. Flipping the job over to the front (top) side and do all remaining carvings including the cutout toolpath (with tabs).
With that said, I hope everyone has a fantastic, and safe, holiday season and a New Year! Here’s the technical details.
Bits used:
- Whiteside SC50 Carving Liner 1/4" (6.35mm) 22-degree
- Whiteside 1570 3/16" (4.5mm) Radius Point Cutting Roundover
- Bits&Bits SRF4-250UP – 1/4″ (6.35mm) Up-Cut Spiral Bit
- Powertec 73003 1/4” (6.35mm) Shank 1/8" (3.175mm) Up Cut End Mill
- SpeTool 3/64" (1mm) Tip, 1/8" (3.175mm) Shank 2.2 degree Tapered Ball Nose
- Note: For RPM, I usually run the Makita at setting 4 (~18,000)
My toolpath (filenaming) schemes are based on the following example for the main Oreo VCarve operation:
Toolpath name: “V-Carve Top Oreo SC50-3EM-1BN”
Translation:
- “V-Carve” = Type of operation (e.g. Pocket, Profile, etc.)
- “Top” = Topside of project in Vectric, I only add this top/bottom text when creating two-sided projects inside Vectric
- “Oreo” = Description of the carve
- “SC50” = Primary carving bit, in this case the Whiteside SC50
- “3EM” = First, larger, clearing bit, this one is the 3mm End Mill
- “1BN” = Second, smaller, clearing bit, with this one being a 1mm Ball Nose
For the other two files generated by Vectric, this is what their names mean:
V-Carve Top Oreo SC50-3EM-1BN [Clear 1]
“Clear 1” would be the MIDDLE bit; 3mm End Mill
V-Carve Top Oreo SC50-3EM-1BN [Clear 2]
“Clear 2” would be the LAST bit; 1mm (tapered) Ball Nose
Applied Finishes, in order:
Minwax Wood Finish Water-Based Clear Tint Base Semi-Transparent Tintable Interior Stain (1-Quart) Model #117200000
MIXED WITH
TransTint Liquid Dye - Black
Deft 12.25 oz. Aerosol Clear Satin Interior Wood Finish Lacquer
Possible updates to the project:
- Make either the lip of the bottom base taller, or more likely the lip of the top lid smaller so as to expose the lip of the bottom base. This along with painting said lip of the bottom base white, this will hopefully mimic the cream filling!
Vectric File:
Oreo_Box.crv (10.2 MB)
SVG:
