Inconsistent Cut Depth in Text

Looking closely at the cut sign on the right the letters “B” and “R” are cut more deeply than the others are are thereby wider. All letters in both signs were cut at the same settings with the same bit.

My first thought was a difference in board thickness as these are scrap trial pieces and necessarily exactly the same thickness. But they measure much closer than the results would indicate. I don’t think that’s the problem. Next, I surfaced my wasteboard thinking maybe it wasn’t flat. That didn’t help either. I recut them 3 times after making the mechanical adjustments I could think of, with the same results. In each case the same two letters are too deep and too wide. The rest of the letters are good, and the sign with the praying hands is good, including the lettering.

I’m using Vectric V Carve Desktop to design and the font is Times New Roman.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Doesn’t take much variation in depth for that to happen. Board thickness or clamping pressure could cause that.
Does it carve in order, BR first? You might be going to aggressive and losing Z steps.
Try cutting the design flipped, rotated 180 on the machine.

I’ll look into that. Just seems odd all the others look good.

Are the B and R possibly bold?

Great thought and I’ll check it for sure, but everything was typed at the same time without changes. It sure looks like it, but I can’t imagine how or when it would have gotten changed.

It looks gradual to me. The top E looks thicker than the bottom E.

I have to agree with Neil.
What angle bit did you use?
A 60 degree will be more forgiving than a 90 with regards to height variations.

Yes, I think you’re. I can’t figure why though.

Sorry, I posted the previous reply to you as well. I’ll try a 60 and see how it looks, but doesn’t really address the underlying issue

In reading through posts related to lost steps I’m almost certain my solution is there, in the Z axis. I’ll be looking into the various fixes for that including checking/changing voltage, which I have yet to experience.

My machine sat for a year unused during and after a move while I established a new workshop. I’m not surprised at the need for a little TLC.

Thanks for the input.

If you have skim cut the wasteboard and the material thickness do not account for the Z discrepancy then you are left with mechanical issues, like lost steps or clamping force. Note that a flexible wasteboard may be skimmed flat but small variations can be introduced when clamping something large/thick down.

Just adding a couple of cents :slight_smile:

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My friend had this same problem, we inspected it and it just happened to be his z axis wire wasn’t making good connection with the motor, he pushed it down and plugged it in better and all was good.

Your right, in addition if my Z is losing steps I suspect the skimming the wasteboard made it worse because of inconsistencies in Z elevation. I haven’t checked it yet, but I bet I have a mess

Jog to Z10 (mm) before you carve. It should be exactly 10mm above your stock. After the carve, jog to Z10 (same XY too). Is it exactly 10mm? If not, you have some mechanical issues.

Roger that

It seems like there is always 5-10 threads going on simultaneously with Z axis accuracy issues. It never ceases to amaze me how much trouble the Z axis is on these machines. I can relate, I had endless issues with my Z axis over the years. I finally relented and just replaced the whole thing with a linear model. For what the machine costs, it’s adequate. Sometimes they work fine, but if you’re making changes often, you can run into issues with crushing the threaded block or getting it out of alignment. I know this isn’t the most constructive post, but I do understand your pain!

You’re right, there are always threads going about z height. Frankly I haven’t spent a lot of time on them because I’ve never had a issue of any kind until now. Of course now I’m pouring over them in detail. I think I’ve isolated my problem, but haven’t gotten to fix it or test it. I think it’s the ol’ loose set screw syndrome. One is missing, and the other seemed not overly tight.

Not 100% sure that’s all though. When I grabbed the router mount to make sure everything was tight there, (it is) I noticed that the mount & lead screw and everything associated with it moved vertically about an 1/8 of an inch. It drops back down onto the washer/pulley/nut on top and rests where it should, but there is vertical movement. I don’t remember from the assembly days if that’s always how it’s been or supposed to be. But I’m hunting for the answers here in the forum. Always lots of good help here.

In the end it was a loose pulley. I realized today how spoiled if been with my machine. I’ve read about the frustrations some people have getting theirs operational, and really I had almost none of that.

I went through it top to bottom and calibrated the various axis. I cut my project twice in scrap and it performed flawlessly. In addition to the machine itself it took the xcontroller apart and blew the dust out of it, and the same for my laptop.

Thank you all who replied. It fantastic to have a place like this to come for advice and moral support.

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Hey guys I still have no luck I’m having same problem iv tried cutting the same font in different places on the board and exact same depth problem with same letters please help

Your waste board isn’t skim cut, this can easily cause minor (but highly visual) carve results.

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