2 stage carve producing lines around letters

If you look closely at the picture below, you will notice that Easel created a “gutter” around the letters in this carve. This was a 2 stage carve using .25 endmill for the roughing and .0625 endmill for the finish. If the depth for the finish was off, I would expect the whole finish to be deeper. This was not the case. only the final pass around the letters is deeper.

Has anyone else had this issue?

Donnie

*** I removed this picture because I know the issue on this particular carve. Please see the close up pics later in the post. They are a better representation of the issue.

Did you redo the Z zero after changing bits?

Yes. I use the Triquetra P3 every time I change bits.

Is the extra depth the same around all letters? It appears variable.
If not I suspect the board warped during the carve or between stages.

On closer inspection, that appears like the smaller bit cut into what was previously carved and left a sliver of uncarved material.

This could be due to the larger roughing bit not cutting the same diameter as programmed or a slightly off X/Y zero.

I’ve had both happen to me.

A close up of one of the areas could shed more light on it…hard to see while zooming in and the angle is only showing one way.

I will get a better picture tonight and post it.

Thanks,

Donnie

Here are two up close pictures of part of the carve. Notice how on the last pass right next to the raised letters, a lower area or gutter was carved. It did the around pretty much all the letters.

Any play in the Z axis, specifically vertical play? Stock Z axis?

Thanks Phil. I actually just removed the original picture because it had an oops when I re-zeroed for the finishing pass. The close up pictures was a second carve that I did with everything (both the rough and finish zero) properly.

The pic that I removed looked like I was losing Y steps but the machine is calibrated good (just did the step calibration a couple of weeks ago). Both x and y are dead on.

Thanks,

Donnie

Yes, stock Z. No play. Not having issues with varying depths. In fact this carve did great on the finish pass until it got right next to the letters. That is when it went deep. The finish pass was much more area than just right next to the letters.

Donnie

Hi Donnie,

Did you submit an error report from Easel after the carve? When the carve finishes, Easel asks you to inspect it and asks if it turned out how you wanted. If you say “No” and click through to get help from Inventables, all of the information including the g-code from your carve will be sent to Inventables and someone will get back to you if you have a question or problem.

That being said, if you didn’t submit an error report but you still have the project, you can still simulate the paths and inspect to see if the paths go to the correct depth, or contact our customer success team and we can help see if there are any problems with the tool paths.

Jeff,

I did not submit a trouble report. By the time I noticed the issue I had already ended the run and closed easel. Here is the link to the project. I’ve shared it so you can take a look at it for troubleshooting.

Donnie

Hi Donnie,

I forwarded your post into our tech support case system. I’ll have someone look into it today and get back to you as soon as possible.

I am sorry you are having an issue - we’ll do our best to get it solved for you.

Thanks!