Shark is a closet sewing machine!

[06Nomad]

I have a very simple sign to carve yet the text is making me crazy. For no apparent reason, rather than a smooth carving motion around the text, the bit wants to move up and down like a Singer sewing machine. I changed the text to curves and the problem remains. This has happened before. I cannot figure out what I am doing to cause this nor have I figured out any reason when it is corrected.

The file is attached. I have tried to carve the text as text and as curves. Can someone help me before I leap off the roof?

I tried numerous times to attach the file. As soon as it uploads, everything goes blank. I think I am jinxed.

thanks
James

[ohiolyons]

Sounds like you are peck drilling

File is not attached

[4DThinker]

If the vectors are not joined together, the router will lift up at the end of each then come down at the beginning. With a bunch of small arcs or segments, the result would seem very much like a sewing machine.

Unfortunately the close/join vector function only works with two segments at a time.

In VCarving text, the bit is lifting up in sharp corners to leave a sharp corner, and this also makes the router do an up-down dance. Nothing you can do about it.

[Keith Hodges]

Just a thought, have you checked to make sure your using the correct post processor?

[06Nomad]

Thanks for you suggestions guys. 4DThinker seems to be right. There is nothing to be done. However, it is 3 am and I cannot sleep, so I have been messing with it .... again. I changed the offset from .2 to .25. Now when I preview the tool path, it appears to zoom right through it. It will probably be best to wait until daylight to try it.

You guys kept me from jumping off the roof, lol.
james

[4DThinker]

Glad to help, James. I also often wake at 1am or 2 with a CNC mission in mind, or am still up cutting something that possessed me the night before. Fortunately today it was just 5:30am to get the trash outside before the truck comes by at 6.

Been debugging the new HD 2.0 we installed at the university shop I teach in. Fun to see how it fascinates students when it is running. Have a training session with the other faculty in my dept today. We have furniture, product, and interior architecture courses within the department. Professors from all are looking forward to discovering what it can do.

4D

[06Nomad]

I bought this machine a few years ago, knowing absolutely nothing about CNCs. I have watched most of the tutorials and discovered that this thing does way more than I will ever understand. I am truly self-taught which is a testimony for Shark.

There have been a number of quirks. I remember an issue with the X-axis moving while carving an image. I was told it was me, then it was a problem with the image. I sent the brains back to Next Wave and everything check out. There were others on the forum having the same problem, then problem mysteriously corrected itself with a periodic software update.

Do you know of a way to just cut around the perimeter of text to cut out a template? I tape off the area, then run the tool path and remove the remaining tape covering the letters. It would be much more time-efficient to just cut around everything and pull off a single piece of tape.

Wish I could take your class
james