I finally put my x-carve together this weekend and completed that initial welcome carving. It turned out just fine. Then I went to attempt to carve my first real project for the house. Using easel, I simply entered some text and started the carve. When I hit detailed view, it looked good using the 1/16 and the 60 degree v bit for detailed carve. But I simulate it and it says 2min + 9min, which didn’t seem right.
I attempted several runs at this and the job finishes up in a couple of minutes, and naturally incomplete.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.
That time doesn’t seem to me to be too far off. Can you post a picture of what it actually looked like when the job finished?
Since you are just doing text without large cut areas, the 1/16" rough bit isn’t buying you much benefit. I recommend just doing the whole project with just the 60 deg bit. I changed it to this bit and it shows 9 min.
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Are you running both parts? The 1/16" and the 60 degree?
As @MechanicalGoose mentioned, do the whole thing with a V-bit.
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@MechanicalGoose, I’ll get a picture on this go around, the board I used and reused are all over the place. he he, but i’ll get a new piece in there and test it. In regards to doing the entire project with the 60 deg bit, it isn’t even coming up on the first bit selection, it’s grayed out. See screenshot. again many thanks!
@NeilFerreri1, I did run them both, will try running the v-bit for both.
Delete the detail bit by clicking the small X in the corner.
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And then change the single bit to V bit.
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Okay completed the carve. So let me voice my gratitude to your responses.
I have attached photo. I do have a question and a concern.
Q: does the V bit stutter as it carved through material? Felt like the flat bits ran through it like butter.
C: the v bit did not go down nearly as deep as I thought it would. I set it at about .75 depth and it seems to just barely etch out the names.
The middle piece and the design on the top are good, but the 5 names, especially the one on the bottom right may not make it through sanding before staining.
Material was surface planed and measured 1.16” in thickness throughout. So it wasn’t a warped or twisted piece.
I then restarted the project and entered a cut of 1” and the bit did not even touch the wood.
Thoughts?
A V-carve toolpath changes depth based on the width of the design. Your text is pretty fine (thin), so it makes sense that the bit won’t be going too deep. When you set the depth, you’re setting a maximum.
Makes sense. I had wondered about that, just couldn’t verbalize it. May look at different font to make sure the names dig deeper then.
Either way, first carve and not too bad. Just need to keep playing with scraps until I start cutting into some good wood.
What’s going on with your drag chain in that last picture? That does not look normal to me.
OOOOPS, missed that part in the instructions. I have it free hanging, but see where I missed attaching it to the X Carriage.
Good catch and thanks for keeping me honest @JustinBusby
Will make that happen after I get home.
Kept messing around with that last piece of wood, pictured above, which was just a test run.
Switched over to a piece of walnut with live edge on the top and bottom and here is my completed 1st project. Thanks for assistance. On to the next.
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That looks better, Walnut is one of the better hardwoods to carve. I rank it at the top with Cherry.
What was that first carve in? It was showing some serious beetle damage.
Also keep in mind you waste board has to be parallel to x and y travel. If it is not it will not matter if your material is flat. I did not buy the pretty waste board so I have leveled it with a shallow cut.
You can place a sacrificial board down and level it and then place your work on top.
Or use shims under your material to get the top surface parallel to x and y.
