Carve Time: How long will it take to carve?

Scenario 1

Potential customers often ask this question. It is a hard one to answer as there are many factors.

Let’s look at the different ways to carve a project and how it effects the carve time.

This project board is 12” x 12”, so you have a rough idea. The pattern has a depth of .350”.

There are 4 quality settings from which to choose. They are Draft, Normal, Best and Optimal. Most projects should be done in Best, but if you have a soft/loose grained wood and HATE sanding, you may want to select Optimal. I would save Draft or Normal for test carves.

Let’s look at how these quality settings effect the time.

Quality: Draft
Carve Time: 29 min 11 sec

Quality Setting: Normal
Carve Time: 37 min 21 sec

Quality Setting: Best
Carve Time: 1 hr 2 min 29 sec

Quality Setting: Optimal
Carve Time: 2 hr 12 min 49 sec

Scenario 2

Now let’s look at the exact same project, but with a square Carve Region around the pattern to give it a cleaner look. Remember the pattern was at .350” depth, so we will match that depth with the Carve Region.

Remember, the more wood you take away, the longer the carve time.

Let’s see how it compares to just carving the pattern by itself.

Quality: Draft
Carve Time: 1 hr 10 min 25 sec

Quality Setting: Normal
Carve Time: 1 hr 34 min 18 sec

Quality Setting: Best
Carve Time: 2 hr 31 min 49 sec

Quality Setting: Optimal
Carve Time: 4 hr 50 min 20 sec

Scenario 3

So that added A LOT of time to the carving, but what if we did this? What if we didn’t carve the pattern & the carve region so deep?

Let’s look at the results if we only carve the pattern and carve region at .125” (our favorite carving depth).

You do loose some resolution on the eagle, but many times, that doesn’t make a significant amount of difference.

See how the carve times change?

NOTE: all of these projects are designed with the default 1/16” carving bit. Changing from 1/16” to 1/32” did not affect the carve time. This pattern has too much detail for the 3/16” carving bit. Have a great TIME carving!