CNC or laser engraving onto curved surfaces

[DrMo]

I’m new to using Snapmaker and was wondering is it possible to CNC or laser engrave onto curved surfaces such as a terracotta plant pot?

[ElloryJaye]

With the rotary attachment, it should be possible (although you might be restricted to smaller pots—I’m not sure how large an item the module will take).

[DrMo]

Hi ElloryJaye
Thanks for your reply. I think that could work but as you say I think the size will be restricted by the rotation tool/jig. I was thinking more of whether the Snapmaker and software was capable of using the z axis to CNC mill onto a curved surface such as a pot of mug?

[brvdboss]

Is it technically possible? Sure, given you have the clearance and the module won’t bump into the object.
Is it easy/out of the box? Not really. You also need a way to fix and/or rotate your workpiece and make sure you can position correctly. This could be a challenge on it’s own. Especially for pots that aren’t really cylindrical but have different diameters at top & bottom.

You might want to check these topics out too:

Autoleveling and CNC journey

Hello everyone, (First, sorry in advance if I miss some rules related to posting here, it’s my first post.) Last week after reading this post I decide to work on this leveling problem. In the past I try to solve it with a waste board and a spring loaded bit but it didn’t solve it completely. Nevetheless, I wrote a code that still need to be fully tested (and maybe implemented on an Electron App), but here are the first results. (Unfortunatly as new user I can’t post multiples embedded picture…

Laser engraving on cylinder e.g.water bottle

A metal water bottle makes for a nice gift and even better if you can custom engrave something on it To get around the problem of engraving on a curved surface i had look at the Rotary attachment from mwhatch - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2784777 - but then made something simpler to print. For those interested have a look at and for a video of it working see

DIY Rotary Attachment

Here is my version 2 of the DIY rotary attachment. I’m happy with the results. [DIY Rotary v.2-200.1] [DIY Rotary v.2-201] [DIY Rotary v.2-202.1] [DIY Rotary v.2-203] Here is the Instructable as well:

And as already mentioned, the rotary module.

edit:
And I just remembered this one as well:

Milling Curved Objects With A G-Code Ripper

there the surface is first “probed” to make a 3d/2.5d map out of it and use that to transform the gcode. Similar to what @Marco did in the first topic I referenced.

So technically possible: yes. Easy? Probably not. But it could make for a really fun project

[Marco]

Hello,

Yes, it’s possible. The two important points to be careful in order to do it are:

• when you are probing your surface, you need to give enough vertical clearance between each point in order to not bump your bit to the surface and damage your machine.
• the second is to be sure that the curvature of your surface will always be accessible by your bit, this is depending especially on the angle of your bit (e.g. with a bit of 10°, the angle between your bit and your surface should not be bigger than 85°).

[DrMo]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I’ll check out all the links and read around this a bit more

[layer0]

Any luck on this? I am trying to engrave with laser on skateboard deck. That needs to follow the curvature too