Curls and how they may form

[AskBud]

This is a cautionary observation about how "Curls" may form as you carve.

Let's look at the 1/16" carving bit. In many cases we are using stock that is much longer than it is wide, and only run into a few curls (if any). This is because our wood grain is running the "Length" of our board and the Bit is moving along the track 90 degrees to the grain. However, if we happen to have a small board that we place in the machine, and happen to place the grain parallel to the track we find that the bit shaves little curls rather than the fine dust we obtain with our longer project boards.

Certain types of may also accentuate the curling as will a dull bit.
You may see curls with other bits, but usually just on the portion of the cut that is parallel to the grain.
AskBud

[Old Salt]

Bud
Good observation .

I think this could help in the cutting of open grain wood like red oak .
It may make smoother carvings with less sanding?
will be of interest to try same carving with board orentation.

[bdehoyos]

This is a cautionary observation about how "Curls" may form as you carve.

Let's look at the 1/16" carving bit. In many cases we are using stock that is much longer than it is wide, and only run into a few curls (if any). This is because our wood grain is running the "Length" of our board and the Bit is moving along the track 90 degrees to the grain. However, if we happen to have a small board that we place in the machine, and happen to place the grain parallel to the track we find that the bit shaves little curls rather than the fine dust we obtain with our longer project boards.

Certain types of may also accentuate the curling as will a dull bit.
You may see curls with other bits, but usually just on the portion of the cut that is parallel to the grain.
AskBud

I encounter that exact problem on a big project that I did on OAK. The cruls got so big that I had a Y axis stall. I had re rerun the project but this time I taped a 3/4” hose the tip of a vacuum hose and avery 10 minutes of carving time I would insert the house trough the slot on the top to the right side , and vacuumed them away with out stopping the machine,

The project had 6 panels oh 2.5 hr cave each so it was a very long carve.