Hello! I recently designed and cut this gift for a family member. For the lettering, I used an advanced v-carve path within Carbide Create. Using an Amana RC-1148 60º v-bit and an Amana 46200-K 1/8 downcut bit. It worked great, but left a few round nubby artifacts inside some of the pockets.
I wasn’t sure how to go about running another path to remove these. So, I did an inner offset of about .02" on the letters that had the issue and ran another pocket path with a small Nomad #112 square bit. The pocket removed the artifacts and it worked really well, but it obviously was plunging into air for awhile until it went down low enough. I hope that makes sense.
Any advice to run a finishing path without all these steps? Very much appreciated!
For a cut path I will either divide the depth per pass to finish with a few thousands at the end to provide that fine surface finish or create a path with a few thousand cut with about 50 percent stepover, starting at the finish depth you had for the original path.
Soft wood is hard to finish properly without sanding.
Sorry, been away and haven’t had a chance to reply! This result is very clean because I ran the final pocketing pass with a tiny bit and the result was awesome, but I wasn’t sure if there was a more straightforward way to achieve these kind of results.
Here is an example of the issue I was having in the past.
For sure!! I can get great results for the type of stuff I make, but I never know if I’m doing things the right way. Imposter syndrome is real bad for me.
Your results look great. It seems like on that last one the 1/8 clearing bit would have gotten those spots.
If you see stuff like that in the simulation you could always draw in new vectors around the bad spots and use a 1/16 bit with only those vectors selected.
There are multiple ways to do everything. Don’t be obsessed over the perfect workflow, just find one that works for you with time that you are willing to live with.
In the E the circle is likely where the bit stopped and was running. I have seen these exact artifacts before and one thing to check is your router/spindle bearings. If you have a Makita/C3D router power off the router and grab hold of the bit and see if the bit moves around. If it does that would indicate a bad lower bearing in the router. If the router seems good then also check your belts and tension on an SO3/4 and the backlash not on a Z-Plus. Because I have seen these things before it might just be something that will happen even with perfect mechanicals.
All of those circles, dimples, etc. You don’t have to let those show. You’re painting those pocketed areas, so fill in the “defects” before you paint over them. They’re not going to disappear under the paint.
Use a good wood filler or epoxy or something to get that surface flat and smooth before you finish paint it. I use Durham’s 1-Pound Rockhard Water Putty because it is a powder, and I can liquify it to whatever consistency that I want. Then I just scratch and scrape it off level.
Sure its extra finishing work, but that just makes you better.
