BLUF - I’m new and only had my GF for a few days. Today I decided to see if I could replicate my old hobby of wood carving Santas on pencils. Let the adventure begin… I learned so much today.
I needed to find an old carving to try and replicate - done
Test the transfer from image to wood, lots of test on draft wood before moving to pencil, then lots more test there, but I got it done. Here are the best settings I found today.
Holding the pencil(s) in the jig worked great for both sizes, however aligning the image to the pencil consistently, wow was that hard. After many failed attempts, I came across the link below; do yourself a favor and make this fiducial ruler now. It works great. Prints lined up great every time like some kind of magic. Perfect Alignment Every Time - The Fiducial Alignment Ruler (design in post)
I didn’t have the required magnets, so I found this honeycomb pin template. The magnets are on order as well. These pins worked like a charm to hold the ruler and jig in place. Honeycomb bed holdown pins
It’s not perfect. I’m still going to play with it more. Maybe a touch white stain to bring out the depth. Lots of more designs to put on these first-grade pencils.
DK
P.S. I forgot to put the files for the pencil jig and santa image. Here you go.
Thanks for sharing the file of this amazing design–great result after only a handful of tests in a couple days on your new GF! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with after a few weeks & months now!!
Fantastic! And as you use up the pencil you are trimming his beard.
By the way, settings information is only allowed in the Beyond The Manual section, so I’ve moved this post there for you. If you prefer to make a separate posting in Beyond the Manual for just the settings info and take it out of this post, let me know and I’ll move it back.
Before you try stain, you might try washing it off - I use a toothbrush and hand sanitizer, others use everything from toothpaste (not gel) to Fast Orange, but give it a scrub and see if removing some of the ash brings out the carving
Thank you deirdrebeth! Great advice. I just uses running water and a stiff brush. Didn’t even think to clean the debris off! Newb move forsure. Before and after pic.
