Lines in my Lithos

[noladude]

As a Professional Photographer I purchased my Carvewright primarilary as an addition to my photography services. The lithophanes I have been carving are blowing people away. The one issue I have and it has been mentioned by several clients also are the little black specs that can almost look like a 5 Oclock shadow on some faces. I am also getting noticeable lines in the lithos which are also annoying the hairs right off my chest!
I have been using .250 inch bone lexan which chips away nicely (I tried plexi for about 10 seconds).
I have also tried a dozen or so variations of photoshopping but I get the same results. I have scoured the forums and have not seen anything on this issue except for one gentleman who used plexi so I am discounting that one.
Any suggestions?
Do I need a new carving bit perhaps?
I am attaching a pic but I do not know if the issue will be visible given the amount of reduction. I shoot with a 24mp so reducing to 90kb tosses a LOT of info.
Anyway I have been lurking long enough and figured it was time to say hi.
HI!
Oh and HELP!

[cnsranch]

Welcome!!

As you already have found out, the problem with doing a litho is that Designer can't show you what the finished product will look like.

However, any flaws in the photo itself will show if you look close enough - my only advice is to spend some time cleaning up the project with the pattern editor before carving.

Good luck

**EDIT**

I haven't carved a litho yet on optimum setting - my guess is that those pesky lines will all but go away (the carving bit will take smaller passes).

[atauer]

another thing that can cause the pesky lines is the actual workpiece moving in the jig itself. What type of setup are you using to hold the workpiece? Are you staying under rollers?

[Digitalwoodshop]

Since you are doing it for a business then I suggest you order a ROCK as soon as possible. The Bit Flutter could be causing some of it.....

ALSO... Lines can come from chips on the board and the rubber rollers riding up over the chips compressing them and raising the head causing a line in the litho.

Also.... If your sled is not long enough to keep the sled under both rollers all the time when it comes out from one roller the litho can tip up causing a line.

Check you Z Truck bearings, QC, Bit by tugging in 4 directions on the bit tip. Any movement = lines....

Use the Blur tool to smooth out the image.

Try looking at your image by rotating it and looking down the edge at the mountains looking for lines.

Change your image to a .png and get away from .jpg a very noisy format.

Read Tips and Tricks to find more tips.

Good Luck,

AL

[noladude]

.png ✓
Jig size ✓ Never any complaints I might add;)
Rollers clean✓
Trucks, truckin✓
Rock...Huh? Whazzat? I think I need me one!
I also ran a small air tube to the carving bit that I hope will keep things blown away from the carving area.
My photos done in my studio are tack sharp and free of noise to begin with. I have used the blur tool in editor, Gaussian blur, and surface blur in CS3.
I have just uploaded a .png photo cropped 8x10 at 300dpi with no other adjustments. Gonna carve me one with just the air blowing enough to keep the carving tip free of snow drifts. See where that leads me.
Now sir if you would be so kind as to enlighten me on the Rock issue it would just make my day.
Thanks
noladude

[rjustice]

.png ✓
Jig size ✓ Never any complaints I might add;)
Rollers clean✓
Trucks, truckin✓
Rock...Huh? Whazzat? I think I need me one!
I also ran a small air tube to the carving bit that I hope will keep things blown away from the carving area.
My photos done in my studio are tack sharp and free of noise to begin with. I have used the blur tool in editor, Gaussian blur, and surface blur in CS3.
I have just uploaded a .png photo cropped 8x10 at 300dpi with no other adjustments. Gonna carve me one with just the air blowing enough to keep the carving tip free of snow drifts. See where that leads me.
Now sir if you would be so kind as to enlighten me on the Rock issue it would just make my day.
Thanks
noladude

Hi noladude,
You can find a ton of information by clicking on the links below in my signature, plus just doing a search for "Rock chuck" here on the forum..

Thank you for your interest!

Ron

[noladude]

another thing that can cause the pesky lines is the actual workpiece moving in the jig itself. What type of setup are you using to hold the workpiece? Are you staying under rollers?

Yes I am staying under the rollers but lying to the machine and telling it not to.
I have the seven extra inches and a little extra on my jigs which are .75 inch boards with a .25 inch 8x10 area carved out of the center. I centered both x and y axis before carving. I also have some double sided tape holding the lexan in but that is probably overkill as the piece is pretty tight when I put it in the jig.
I am currently carving an 8x10 with a small amount of air blowing near the carving tip. It seems to be keeping any trash from accumulating in that area.
I will let you know how it all works out.
Thanks Again for the insight.
Gary

[DocWheeler]

Gary,

Firmware versions prior to 1.130 (I think) had a problem with the Z position when the machine was stopped to clean it out.

So your lines could be caused by the firmware if you are using a version that has this bug. You can see where they say that they fixed that bug in their update history.