Hi brilliant folks of the Carbide community, I’m hoping you can help me out here!
I’m carving this “M” using advanced v carve with a max depth of 0.15 inches using a 1/8" endmill for the pocketing function and 90 degree v bit for the rest. I did a practice run on some plywood (ignore the overlapping text, I ran out of scrap room!)
Then I made the font size very slightly smaller (accident) and ran the project. This is the only stock I have for this project and can’t just run on a different section or new material. Is there anything I can do to at least get rid of the peg legs on the M?
I can go slightly deeper but not more than 0.2" max depth. I also thought about re-running the same vectors with a 60 degree v bit but don’t want to make it look worse so I thought I would check in here and see if anyone with a bit more knowledge than me can help me out of this bind!
Edit - the picture may be a little misleading. The thin parts on the ends of the M (the weird thin legs) are very shallow, maybe half the depth of the rest of the cut.
I use calipers to measure stock thickness, and for this piece I took 6 measurements. The material was surfaced before it was painted and the max discrepancy I measured was 0.005". The rest of the text from this project came out as expected.
Ok thanks I’ll give that a go. I did cut this toolpath probably 6 times on scrap (stock that was not super flat), tweaking the depth and angle of the v bit using v7 and didn’t have this issue on any of the tests which is why I am perplexed!
Sometimes using the same piece of stock (ply or solid wood) will lead to the piece warping even if “we” think the stock is secured well. Even plywood once opened up can have stress induced if the moisture content changes, the same for wood. Don’t ask me how I know.
I recut the v7 file on some scrap and got the exact same result (sorry forgot to get a pic of this one) which is odd because I cut the file numerous times over the weekend without this issue. My main focus was to try to salvage the project, so I tested recutting with the toolpath max depth set to 0.175"
Then I tested the cut using v8 at the original max depth of 0.15" and it came out looking like my test cuts from a few days ago (v8 at max depth 0.15" is the top one in this pic, v7 at max depth of 0.2" is the bottom)
Great news that v8 looks better so I assume something software related, but I’m not really sure how to apply this knowledge to my project since I already cut it with v7.
I’ve definitely had that happen as well! One of the joys of working with natural materials My issue here is the v-carve part of the cut looks so jagged, and doesn’t appear to follow the contour of the programmed vectors. I cut this same toolpath on scrap material that was VERY uneven a few days ago and, while it had some expected variation related to material height, it didn’t look like this at all with the super jagged cut lines. I’m mostly just looking for suggestions on how to salvage the project!
No real answer, but I ran the simulation and noticed the 3 legs on the “M” were the last things cut.
And right before the last leg (the far left leg) was the ‘crook’ just above it (circled in red). It also looks like that area on your 2nd (blue top face) picture didn’t cut all the way down.
If I had to guess, you lost some steps & were cutting too high for that last little bit of the program
Ok thanks for the tips! Unfortunately in this case I did re-zero and re-cut and got the same results. However when I tried the same toolpath with the same zero settings I create V8, I got a much better result. I’m just not sure how to use this knowledge to fix my current project.
Just wanted to give an update in case someone else stumbles across this post with a similar problem.
I replicated the issue (choppy machine marks and not a deep enough cut on the legs of the M) on scrap using 2 different brands of 90 degree v bit (in case the angle was less precise on one). I surfaced a piece of scrap, reset the z zero, and recut the toolpath with the exact same result. When I moved the toolpath into create v8 and recut on the same piece of scrap with the same z settings, the result was much better with clean, smooth lines. I ultimately recut the project piece using v8 and set the max depth 0.001" deeper than the original cut to try to smooth it out as much as possible without completely changing the appearance. It didn’t come out at nicely as my test cuts a few days before, but it was much better than the first result (pic in original post).
I appreciate all the responses here attempting to diagnose the issue, and my lesson learned is that I need to get better about checking for software updates in the future!
My issue here is the v-carve part of the cut looks so jagged, and doesn’t appear to follow the contour of the programmed vectors. I cut this same toolpath on scrap material that was VERY uneven a few days ago and, while it had some expected variation related to material height, it didn’t look like this at all with the super jagged cut lines. I’m mostly just looking for suggestions on how to salvage the project!