What's the best way to get rid of model edge lines?

[NancynBob (Bob Griffith)]

For about a month, I’ve been working on and off creating a plaque depicting a C-130J. Big USAF cargo plane. Today, I finally gave it a try on my Shapeoko Pro. I liked most of what I saw, but hit one annoying bug. Along the leading and trailing edges of the wing, there are a cut marks which I’d like to eliminate. To lesser degree, they also appear around the til section.

Here’s a shot of the entire plaque.

And here’s a close shot of the trailing edge of the wing.

And finally there’s the C2D file
3D from Line Art - with Badge - V12.c2d (3.9 MB)

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

The best thing to do is to inset the geometry and use a combination of a Pocket toolpath (which comes up short) and a Facing toolpath (possibly with a smaller tool).

I started going over this sort of thing last night:

Using multiple tools for Pocket operation in a V carve

Given a #251 w/ a 1.016mm cutting depth: [image] and a V carving toolpath which is to cut 2.5mm deep: [image] using a 60 degree V tool: [image] Raises the possibility that one could define a V tool with an angle of: [image] 58.91 degrees which would result in 2 passes with a #251 and leaving a thickness less than the 0.762mm Depth per Pass of an Amana #46200-K .125" 2 flute down-cut The question of course, is what regions the larger tool cannot reach in a given V carving and how th…

[SLCJedi (Josh Tenny)]

What were your cut settings…most notably the bit diameter and stepover?

[NancynBob (Bob Griffith)]

Will - My head is stuffed up with a cold, so your reply didn’t really get into it. But the good news is that the problem is solved.

I turned off all of the non-wing model components, created a closed vector that was about a 1/4" larger than the wing and ran both the Prep 2 - BIT SETTER ON and the CARVE Airplane Only steps, watching what they did.

Eventually, watching the fourth 3D Finish perform, I found the culprit to the strange cuts on the trailing edge of the wing. I had approximated the angle of the wing as 105° which is the angle I used for that toolpath. Most of the passes stopped at the top of the trailing edge. About every 7th step or so the cutter would dip down the full thickness of the trailing edge, notching them. I’m simply going to try eliminating that pass entirely. If I find a point where I really need the 1/16" cutter, I’ll focus of that element by itself, as I’ve done with the flag, USAF, and logos.