Hey guys,
I’m working on a sign that’s 16x28. It has a logo, (4) 9" letters and (12) 1" letters. I’m making it out of pine. I designed the sign in Inkscape and uploaded to easel. It started cutting great. I had prepainted the areas in the red and black paint using a rustoleum spray. I watched for 30 minutes or so and I walked in the house to work on my wife’s chore list. I came back to check 30 minutes later and the carving was off. I’m using a 1/4 end mill bit. I stopped it and the home position was roughly 1" off on the x axis. Because I didn’t see it happen, any ideas on what to check? Being a large sign I don’t want to waste another piece of material to figure it out. My plan is to start with belt tension.
My next question is with paint. I sealed the wood with a light coat of poly. Then I sprayed the areas that were black, masking off the areas that are red. Then I sprayed the red area after masking the black. While it was carving, the wood was cut great. The paint however had a frayed edge to it, almost rubberized. Is there another kind of paint I should use? Or a different speed to cut that would clean this up?
I was thinking about cutting the letters separately. Have the x carve cut the field on the background. Then cut letters, paint the letters, then glue them on. This may eliminate any problems where an entire work piece is ruined. Any thoughts on this?
My last question is if I am doing this correctly by painting first. It just took me awhile to paint, sand etc just to have it botched in the end. Does anyone cut first then try and paint? I think it’s probably easier to paint first.
Thanks
Mike
