Thanks Mike, that makes sense. The 60deg bit just kinda floated across the board. At the moment I just have the basic bits so will have to get a 30
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Thanks Andy, that’s a good chart. To make sure I understand the context and using a 90deg bit as an example, is it the depth set to .125 then the width will be .0625 or .25
depth is .125 then width is .25
Holy trig
There also seems to be a flatness issue, either in your stock or your spoil board. The lines toward the left are more consistent and pronounced than on the right.
Have you surfaced your spoil board?
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@Minidb I think that maybe you have it backwards, the depth doesn’t set the width of a v carve, it’s the width that sets the depth. The bit will only go as deep as it needs to to fit between the lines. There is a flat depth with a v carve in Vectric software but that does not make the bit go that deep, what it does is stop the bit from going any deeper than the flat depth.
Here is a link to a post I made with a drawing of how v carve depth works.
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Thanks Michael, that make more sense, appreciate the clarification.
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Some fonts have very narrow serifs. For those
I always set the starting depth to something like 0.5mm below the top. makes a big improvement
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Thanks Saskia, that appeared to be the problem. Adjusted the Z zero a smidge and had a much better result.
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@saskia I use a zero plate, once at zero you can manually turn The Z Axis by clicks on the the Z Axis pully one or two clicks on the cog belt, easy way to drive the bit deeper.
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@Minidb Your spoil board is not level, maybe try resurface drop it down another mm and see if that helps.
Maybe the wood is warped?
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@Mickus absolutely, i have been carving some old cedar fence boards, even well clamped down it’s very irrigular, a cheat turning the top drive pully (front spindle) counter clockwise after zero works, that’s why i call it a cheat.
@Minidb Just keep in mind, Doug, that if you follow the advice to move the Z axis by hand, the machine will no longer “know” where it is in Z. All your cuts until you reset Z0 will be off relative to what your CAM software shows. Any previews will be inaccurate.
Many here post about their bits “plunging” into the material. This will happen if you change the height of Z by manually changing the height of Z. It seems to me that it’s never a good idea to solve one problem by creating another.
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Solid advice Grant. I did move my Z zero by .05 but did it through gSender and only for the font that wasn’t comming through.
The problem I was having really seemed to be a combination of the font and bit choice.
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@Bill I have a stack of wr cedar fence boards that I use for inlays. They are never flat. I run a few passes on the bottom cup side through the Vdrum sander and then run a surfacing pass with a 1" 3 wing… If you don’t use them right away, they will warp some more. Funny wood but very fancy.
@gwilki as Grant said, don’t do that. Either the board is not flat or your file is jacked.
Surface your board and just your board. You can use a .250 end mill or a 1" 3 wing. And try it again. Always set a flat depth for v-carves…
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@gwilki i have never had my machine plunge, if i manually cheat after setting zero it just carves a tad deeper, i only do this for irregular surface material and i want to preserve the rustic aged appearance without surfacing.
@RickW I have also notice that selecting bold in v carve causes open, overlapping
vectors, unchecking bold cleans it up and the vector validator runs clean.
This is an example of the weathered grey appearance is what we want to retain, so can’t clean it up without losing that. I use a zero plate, the irregular surface is why i cheat to achive a decent carve.
@gwilki i understand your concern of manually changing “Z0” however I zero Z first, then drop it manually 1-2 mm, the machine remains zeroed minus 1-2mm which results in a slightly deeper carve. Under perfect condition. Planed and jointed surfaces need no help, rough uneven surfaces do.
Forget what I said, that looks great!
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