Speaking of Blender, thereās an add-on called True Depth which will generate a real depth map from a picture. Itās not perfect but does a decent job. Depth maps are usually black and white. Because of that, a lot of people assume you can use a black and white photo to carve a 2.5D image. Your results wonāt be good with a B&W picture
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Inkscape is another free software I use. Among other things, you can create an outline (trace) of an image with it ( although vCarve can do it also, qCad too).
thanks everyone, for all the responses. I wasnāt originally, but I think Iām leaning toward the Altmill based on what people have said. I have a feeling I might grow more into it as I use it for more and more things.
Iāll make sure to check those out. Guess I need to head over to the software forums and figure out what software to marry before my cnc ventures. Out of curiousity, so say I eventually get an altmill, is tiling a relatively simple process with a 4x8 board? Iād imagine you do 1 half of a project, then just push the rest through and reset it once itās level on a sawhorse or w/e youāre using to support it.
Thatās the gist of it. Usually with some holes and dowels to make sure the tiles match up. I know that Vectricās software has features to aid with tiling. Not sure about the others but if you watch or read about how itās done you can do it with any software and some planning.
EDIT: This is worth looking at for tiling.
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@Mohjo When doing your prep, you may want to watch this. I donāt buy his revenue projection for a minute in the local market, but he has done it and I have not, so ā¦
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yup, Iāve seen a few of this guyās videos and their pretty useful from what I can tell. He does a video with a shapeoko vs altmill I found pretty helpful but pretty strongly advocates for the altmill at the very end with the caveat that theyāre both good machines for different people, but it seems like people just really love their altmills.
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@Mohjo Iāve followed him for quite a while. Generally, I like his stuff. He has come a long way since his start, so clearly, he knows a lot more about business and marketing than I do.
Iāve just seen too many members here believe that they can be up and running and pay for their machines in the first few months. That is obviously possible if you can come up with a product that is not already flooding the market.
Ryan advocates for Etsy and it can be a very good avenue for craft style products. However, in my limited experience (and I have not opened an Etsy store), for anything that I can dream up, there are already dozens of CNC owners selling them, each trying to outprice the other.
Iām not bitching about this, as I got into this as a hobby. Itās an excellent learning opportunity for me. Most of what I do ends up in the re-cycle bins.
I have built 2 kitchens from scratch. Like cutting down the trees, milling the wood, drying it and building raised panels doors but the cabinets themselves I made out of melamine. That said I just did my third kitchen and all the cabinets are from ikea. I definitely would not recommend doing it with a long mill unless you are getting A LOT out of the experience. Modern thermodipped doors are extremely durable and look great for at least a decade plus they are cheap. Having to do all the sanding and finishing is pain in the ass. Iām 60 and retired and would never build them myself again. Thatās just my .02 cents worth of advice.
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Heey Joseph,
Any updates on your progress getting a machine? I revisited your topic, and suddenly feel like looking at some fancy kitchen cabinet gallery.
Hows it going?
I just finally got the machine set up last weekend. Still have to make my wasteboard and everything. Life has been busy helping my Dad sell his place and move in with us as well as a whole lot of other stuff. Ironically I did do a cabinet project that took a few weeks, it just wasnāt quite what you might have in mind, but you might get a kick out of thisā¦
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