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Good morning. I need some help with this carve. I’ve been unsuccessful three times with this specific project. I did receive my xcarve this weekend so I’m incredibly new. I’ve been watching tutorials and trying to do as much research as possible.
The machine is on a flat surface. My belts are tight, makes a nice sound when i flick it like a guitar string. The router Z axis is 90 degrees to the surface. My drive wheels are are all snug, it takes two fingers to turn them. The router is tightly attached to mount. The router bit is inserted fully into the dewalt router and tight. I had my local wood shop joint and plane my material (pine), but have also tried using 3/4 plywood for testing.
The main issues are. No matter what I set the cut depth to the V carve bit does what it wants. I’ve used the 60D inventables 1/8 shank bit as all as this rockler 60D bit. rockler bit.
I made sure to use the z probe. used the calipers for the material height. I’ve followed tutorial videos step by step but still get unwanted results.
Here is the project file and pics below. Any assistance or input is greatly appreciated. I understand there is a learning curve but it’s a little frustrating. Thank you in advance.
That’s kind of the way V-bits work. They use their width up the side to determine how deep to carve. There is some good information in this video on V-Bits – it’s towards the end.
I see that. She also explained that the bit will carve as deep to reach the depth or hit the limits of the design. If that’s the case i’m not sure why it carves so wide that the letters start to combine. Also, the preview window or the simulation don’t show the issues. The bit also drags from section to section. Doing more reading and double checking the installation.
I did achieve somewhat good results prior to the carve in question. Same bit.
![D08D9E24-25EB-423C-9132-D6D434599CCA|690x388]
(upload://xGToLLbRw0AQ0n32SJi4ovd9iUw.jpeg)
Check your “safety height” in the machine setup/advanced (unfortunately that is per project, not a global setting). Do you use a probe or manual Z-height? I ran into the issue that the 60 degree v-bit was so sharp that it cut into the brass of the probe block so the z-height was off by a few thousandths.
I use the z probe, checked it with the calipers and its the proper thickness according to inventables. I did contact their support number. They had me run a test with a straight bit and it was going great then it decided to go to max depth on the third pass of a letter. This of course bent the bit. It went from .023 depth to .209
Marco the project you shared at the start of this post is set to use just an 1/8 bit.
If you carve that that with a v bit you will have a mess.
Your last image looks to have been cut with an end mill using a V carve tool path.
Or possibly it was loosing steps.
Is you Z axis solid and the pulley tight on the acme screw?
I agree with @MarkA.Bachman. For that design, you really only need to use the 60-Deg. V-Bit for carving it. I would also stick with the Automatic Speeds & Feeds until you get more comfortable with the machine and its abilities.
Unless you are having a Z-Axis issue, driver under-current issue, or not setting the Z correctly, the only other reason might be a dropping bit. Are you tightening the collet sufficiently? There used to be issues where the Z-Axis was not brought up high enough over some carved sections, but I am almost positive Inventables resolved that issue a while ago; I have not seen it recently. What you have is consistently everywhere over the project as well.
Did you get this resolved with Inventables’ support?
