Porsche emblem carve
My friend Nick is a Porsche fan. He asked if I could carve a large Porsche logo, in wood for him. I found this image and used it as a starting point.
After redrawing it a few times, in my CAD software, I was able to create a line drawing that I could bring into the Carvewright software, to create a useable program for the carver.
Cutting some old maple down to size
When the program was finally complete enough to give it a try, I cut down some old maple boards to about 24″ long and jointed the edges on my table saw.
Jointing the edges on the table saw
Applying glue to one edge
I applied glue to one edge and clamped the boards together for an hour or so.
Clamped up
Removing the excess glue
After they were set, I removed the nearly dry, excess glue that squeezed out when I clamped it.
Using a card scraper to blend the seam
Next, I used a card scraper and a sander to smooth out the seam and to clean up the face of the board.
A little sanding to clean up the board
I fired up the carver and set it to the second best quality option.
It took 4-1/2 hours to complete the carve. The best quality would have taken close to 9 hours. I used maple because it has a hard, close tight grain. I still had a bit of tear out on the antler-looking things in the picture below. This is mainly a test carve to check out my program. I will fix any problems with the program, after this one is run, then run a new board at optimum quality. That will slow the cutter down and hopefully remove the tear-out problem.
Detail shot
4-1/2 hours later, here is what it spit out.
Carve complete
Picking out the dust stuck in the grooves
I spent some time picking the dust out of the 1/16″ wide grooves and de-fuzzing the edges with a small, common, screwdriver.
De-fuzzing the edges…
After that, I ran my mop sander over it for a final de-fuzzing, with the help of my assistant.
Cleaning up the surface with my mop sander
Not a bad first run. I forgot to recess the blank sections in the first three letters of “PORSCHE” and I had some small tear-out problems, but all-in-all a pretty good success.
All cleaned up
My friend wants to use this one to practice applying black and red paint. We may also stain the remainder and apply a clear coat over that. Meanwhile, I will fix the letters and tweak a few lines in the program to minimize the tear-out problem. I will put up another post when we have more to show.
Update:
Nick spent a couple of days playing with paint and this is what he came up with.
Painted
Midnight Woodworking 
I am really impressed with your use of the CNC. I would not have a clue as to how to write a program like this for a Cravewright CNC. Heck, I figure I’m doing good just to draw a plan with paper & pencil. I do love your posts, they give a person an idea as to what’s possible out there.
Thanks Herb, I also have problems creating carves within the Carvewright software. That is why I use other programs to create 2d line drawings and import them into the software as DXF files. Once the lines are in the software, I can apply different cutting tools to them. I can also import 3d models as STL files. I would be very limited indeed if I stuck to Carvewright’s software. Sometimes, just knowing that it is possible helps you figure out how to do something.