Team,
So I continue to play with my X Carve and I continue to have issues. Take a look at these photos.
1 - I have a lot of grooves that require clean up on the bottom. I am using the 1/4 bit that came with the X Carve. Should this be the case?
2 - O n one tab, I have a ridge all the way up the plunge requiring clean up. Again, is this normal?
Any advice on these issues?
The marks on the bottom indicate to me that your spindle likely isn’t square to the wasteboard, in some direction or other. If it’s close to square you may not see something like this on smaller bits, but any out of square will show up when using larger bits (like 3/4").
As for the tab, it’s possible you have a bit too much runout on either your spindle or bit, or both. I’m used to seeing a little bit of this, but that’s pretty dramatic.
What are your feeds, speeds, and RPM’s?
Robert - thank you. I will check squareness. Question: What is runout (to your second pt)?
Ideally, your bit will rotate perfectly around the central axis and will only cut a path as wide as your bit. Realistically, there will be imperfections that will add up to cause the bottom of the bit to spin a little wider than the top, stuff like slight bearing misalignments, collets/adapters that are slightly larger on one side than the other, and imperceptible bends in the bit. The difference between the ideal width of a cut and the actual width of a cut is runout. Low quality parts will have increased runout because their manufacturing tolerances are much lower.
If you want to try measuring your runout, then measure your bit as accurately as possible and then cut a single pass 1/4 to 1/2 bit diameter deep, maybe something like a square where you cancel the cut after it’s cut the third side. Then measure the width of the path it cut at multiple points. For instance, if your bit is .247" wide and your cut path is an average of .252" wide, you would have .005" of runout.
You’ll never get zero runout, the best you can do is purchase equipment that will support you to a runout that is acceptable to you. That’s one of the reasons why the price of an item with .001" tolerance at a shop is at least 10 times more than the price of the same item with .005" tolerance. 
Robert - can you “ramp plunge” in Easel? Ramping in, instead of plunging eliminates this (2nd picture) issue, but I don’t use Easel so I am not sure if it is supported.
Easel doesn’t have ramp capability. What would be nice is if Easel didn’t lift all the way to the safety height when it was cutting tabs, since that would also be eliminated or minimized by just lifting up above the tab and continuing onward.
