So I did my first carve today, placement was good depth etc but when It was finished carving I noticed wobbly line and it really did not look good at all, I had a 60degree v bit in engraving on mdf, I tightend the bit in with a wrench so a loose bit was not the problem, my table seems to be abit wobbly wondering if that is the problem? The machine also started carving in these random dots towards the end
Did you do this in Easel? How did you create the design? I’d like to see your project, if you can share it. If you would like to share it, go to the Easel file, click on File > Share > Shared with Link, then copy the link, click the button to Share the file, and post the link here.
At a guess, I would say you lost steps for some reason. I think the random dots at the end were meant to be at points where lines intersected. Easel v-bit carving likes to kind of tweak corners as a last part of the job. If you lost steps before it got to that point, the little tweaks would end up missing the corners. And losing steps could explain the wobbliness of the lines, as well.
First thought is that the file you used was made of a lot of broken vectors, maybe a rough trace? As @KimberlyFranzen said, if you share the project, it’ll help diagnose.
Yea I believe that could be the problem sorry I can’t upload it yet as I am not by my computer, but I used a font on easel and the dots where still there
I noticed that the belt is very loose could that be the problem?
Yes, that could be it. Definitely try tightening everything as recommended in the assembly instructions, and then see how it carves.
Great thank you, any advice how to get images that aren’t broken vectors? Is image trace not the route to take?
Easel’s image trace function can useful when you don’t have anything else, but it is generally better to create an svg using other software (I use Adobe Illustrator, though not well enough to be able to guide you through the process) and import that file. Another member here advocates Inkscape, which is free software that you can read about and obtain here: https://inkscape.org/
Image trace is making vectors by tracing over the bitmap image. If you have the original vector file or can export it from Illustrator or similar your results in Easel will be better.
Thank you, I used inkscape and it worked well although I am still getting those dots, I guess it’s trying to get it in the corner of the piece but it misses it by a few mils
Are the dots in the toolpaths?
Can you share one of those Easel projects?