I’ve really been getting into vcarveing lately but one area im struggling to get clean results with is any design that has sharp corners. Those areas just don’t seem to be coming out well. Anything im doing wrong? Any advice on how to improve cut quality would be greatly appreciated. I also see similar tear out in small text, mostly small a’s and e’s. Running a pro xl and photo is in maple.
Your actual cut doesn’t match the 3D preview:
Where are you setting zero relative to the stock? Your file specifies top.
How are you managing tool changes?
Is your spindle in good condition? If you grab the shaft and try to shift up/down does anything move?
Is your machine mechanically sound?
Hey Will,
I set my zero height at the top of the stock using the paper method. I bring the z down till I can’t move the paper anymore. I didn’t even notice until you mentioned it but it does appear to have cut a little deeper then the preview. I have the bit setter which i use for tool changes. I just gave my machine a quick once over and it seems to be all good. I don’t feel any movement when trying to move the spindle.
Is the stock of uniform thickness?
I would suggest flattening the stock on the machine, then cutting.
When carving with a vee bit the machine comes up and sloped down the sharp corners. If you router bearings are not the best the router tends to dig in. The reason is when you are zeroing with the paper or the BitZero the shaft is pushed up. When the router retracts to come down on light cuts the bit tends to move down with bad bearings. That is likely what is causing the dimples in the tail. They do make rebuild kits for the C3d and Makita routers that are relatively easy to replace the bearings if you think may be your problem. I bought a lightly SO3 XL with a C3D router. The previous owner could never achieve his desired level of precision. When I got it home I was checking it over and the router shaft would wiggle because the bearings were bad. I bought a replacement Makita because the Z-Plus Z axis had a 66MM mount. That Makita was great. I sold it later because I did not need two machines. The Makita routers are on Amazon for $179.00 with a single base. Walmart has it at $156.93. Zoro.com has it for $139.00. With zoro.com if you sign up for email you can get a 20% coupon code. I have seen those makita routers for $99.00 but I have not shopped lately for one. The C3D router is a clone of the Makita so which router do you think is better, the original or the clone. Makita router break and the Makita and C3D seem to eat through motor brushes much faster than the Dewalt 611. Mileage varies.
The Makita and C3D router rebuild kits are identical so buy the Makita one.
I found a whole rotor for the Makita for $31.00 which is complete with bearings installed. You can also just get the bearings for $9.00 and $7.00 as individual parts on ereplacementparts.com If you cannot remove the old bearings the whole assembly would be easier at
Thanks so much for the reply. I double checked my router spindle and gave it a really good wiggle but I don’t feel any obvious movement. I wasn’t aware that the bearings were something that could go bad, I don’t really have any experience using routers beyond my shapeoko. thanks for the info and i’ll definitely keep and eye on it.
What bit are you using?
How deep do you need to cut?
Did you do the advanced V carve? I had gotten great sharp corners on the inlay that I did. I downloaded the new version so that I could use the inlay bottom feature.
I’m using a 30 degree vbit, .015 tip if im not mistaken. Spe brand off of amazon. Ive used quite a few spe brand bits and generally have pretty good luck with them. I don’t need the cut to be deep, basically what the CC preview shows would be perfect.
No, this was just a straight v carve. I didnt want to pocket or advance v carve the design since i was making this as a coaster. I thought trying to keep the lines more narrow would be best. Ive been meaning to try out that new inlay feature. Ive always been interested in inlays but found the whole process a little intimidating. The new inlay option seems to really simply things.
Which Z-axis?..
Hard to tell from the pic…is it cutting deeper when it comes bak to do those corners?
I felt the same way prior to doing my first inlay, very intimidated. I read a lot of articles and everything I could find on here and after doing one design I am hooked! it turned out perfect! I do want to figure out how to get the two boards a little bit apart so I can get my japanese saw in there. Otherwise it turned out great.
You could put a pocket along one edge, or at one corner which was a saw thickness deep.
Double check the angle of your bit, good chance it’s not exactly what it says it is. Here’s a youtube video that shows one method, and while the video uses a competitors product and a different bit angle the technique is easy to adapt to Carbide Create.
For tearout it might help to make a final shallow pass. I don’t know if V7 allows roughing and finishing for vcarves, if not in the past I’ve zeroed a little high, run the cut, then rezeroed on the surface and done a full depth toolpath that shaves off that last little bit.
If you’re using this bit,
it has a flat 0.015 tip. The software assumes Vee-Bits have a sharp tip.
So all your cuts are 0.0075 wide (shy) per side, and the corners are 0.015 instead of sharp.
Not sure how you could get a better cut with that bit. Nothing other than V-Carve or Advanced V-Carve is going to try to pick out the corners.
Yeah, that’s the bit I was using. To be honest, I didn’t even really notice the tip wasn’t as sharp as other vbits. I’m bought it for a another project and it worked well for that but that .015 tip is likely what’s causing my issue here. I’ll see if i can get the sharper tip version of the bit instead, that should really improve the cutting of this particular design. Thanks for the help!
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