CNC Shark Forum

I am a newbie to cnc routing and need some guidance please.

I am making an urn and am having problems with the lettering I getting. In Vcarve pro 9.5 everything looks good, but when it is engraved on the wood I get rounded corners when they should be a straight crisp intersection. The depth of the cut is more than twice what the toolpath preview is showing in Vcarve which is causing the lettering to overlap and look nothing like what I see in the preview. Prior to carving I did set the tool z axis with the touch plate.

I have attached the .crv file I made.

Any help/suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

Pete

Pete,
My first question is: Have you made any other Vcarvings yet, that turned out as planned?
Bob

This is my first attempt at lettering.

I did a spoil board, I put through holes on 2 inch centers, surfaced it and routed lines making a two inch grid. This turned out as expected.

With this project it is my first time using V-carve/engraving toolpath tool.

Have you zeroed out the bit on top of your material? Also do you have virtual zero which helps with uneven thickness of the boards?

Tony

In your tool path setup there is no Flat Depth (F) recorded so the program will use the depth recorded in the toolbase setup which in this case showa .125" which I believe may be causing your problem issue. Try setting a depth 0f .050" for Flat Depth (F) and try it again on a piece of scrap then adjust this depth accordingly.

This is all based on if you have setup z-zero correctly and you are using z-zero for the variations in the material boards surface as stated by Tony in the previous post.

Good Luck and Happy Carving!

Sharkcutup

Thank you for helping me.

I have zeroed out the bit at the top of the board using the touch plate. (I checked the software settings for the touch plate and it is good)

I have not set up z-zero as I am using scrap plywood and that appears to be relatively flat. Do you think it's necessary?

I will give it a try this afternoon setting up the flat depth as suggested and then I will let you know how it turned out.

Thanks - Pete

Your toolpath settings look good to me. And the preview looks good. Therefore, I'm suspecting that you are doing something to cause a different outcome than what the preview shows.
So,
Which post processor are you using?
Also,
Are you sure that you're using the same v bit as specified in your toolpath? 90V?
Bob

pj26,

I've had similar experiences where square corners get rounded. What I did to fix my problem was to set the speed of my cut in the tool section slower, like half the speed. It has to do with centrifugal forces and what not. I think the machine does the rounding. That is why you don't see it on the software rendering.

Try it on a piece of test and let us know what happens.

Post Processor is: CNCShark-USB Arcs (inch)(*.tap)

No change so far with the suggestions posted.

I will slow the feed in the morning and try again.

Thanks to all -
Pete

please attach photo of your most recent carving so that we may see exactly what you are talking about.

Sharkcutup