Clock Help Please

[chebytrk]

OK... so I've taken the Clock Mantle .mpc and tried to modify it to carve on a 1x8x6 cedar board. Here's what I've done and obviously it didn't work so I need some ideas and suggestions please.
I placed the mpc in to Designer and reset the depth lines to 1.0. Also had to mirror (with team members help) one side because for some reason after placing the original mpc in designer, the right side was badly out of line. Anyway, mirroring it fixed it. I also reset the size of the center hole to 3.250 so my clock insert would fit in to it (worked fine). However, I've carved this mpc twice and both times the carve has been off (center hole AND right side of clock). Obviously I'm doing something wrong and reason why I'm asking for help. Also I used a board that was 32inches long, but as you can see in designer I think that it should have worked (maybe not?). I also told it NOT to stay under rollers, but I never saw it lose contact with either roller. I did notice that the CW told me that the board was too thick and it may not carve through the board, but I told it to proceed anyway. The board is actually just "a hair" over 1 inch so there was no damage there. I just don't understand why the pattern is not cutting out correctly even though to me it looks fine in designer. Please take a look at my .mpc and let me know. I think I need a much bigger learning curve than most here 'cause I'm certainly not catching this stuff in Designer. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. I'm attaching the .mpc I used and the pic of my results... don't laugh! Thanks team...32927http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b196/chebytrk/clock-1.jpg

[Icutone2]

Did you use masking tape on the back side, for the roller to ride on also check head pressure.
Lee

[chebytrk]

Did you use masking tape on the back side, for the roller to ride on also check head pressure.
Lee

Yup, I used 2 strips of masking tape.... one on the edge and one down the center. Al Who has me believing in the use of Masking Tape! Head Pressure is good too.

[lynnfrwd]

It looks to me like your board moved after the carving part and before it began the cut out. Can't see the ends, but if you didn't stay under the rollers that would be my guess.
:(

[Router-Jim]

I noticed that you used a 32" board and your mpc was set up for 31". Which option did you choose when you loaded the board?

Place on center
Place on end
Jog to position?


If you choose "Place on center" I would think you would be alright. Either of the others might be giving you problems because you have your center cutout circle and your carved circle both set up for centered both ways. Your splines are not (And I don't think they can be) centered.

When I carved mine I used a sled with the board centered and always choose "Place on Center".

What I would suggest:

1. Use a 31" board or a sled.
2. lock in your cordinates before you load the mpc
3. Choose Place on center.

I sure hope that helps.

[mtylerfl]

Hi Jerry,

I agree with Lynnfrwd that you had a board slip/tracking problem during the outside perimeter cutout.

The layout is a little odd to me - noticed a couple things...

1) The outside outline is broken up, so that you cannot use the Cut Path Tool (rather, it is a manual cut path without any tabs). It would be better to make sure the outline is continuous and use the cut path tool instead of a broken path with a manual bit assignment like it is now. (I believe this is directly related cause of movement...since it has no tabs, you had to devise some sort of "hold-down" method to keep the pieces from coming loose as the cut was performed. Unfortunately, that didn't work in this case.)

2) The layout is very close to the edges...I would use a wider board and allow at least 1/2" margin at the top of the board. You are probably OK with the slight margin at the bottom, but if the board is wide enough, give it a little more margin too - won't hurt anything.

I'm sorry you had the problem in the first place. It hurts when we waste wood! Hope you have a better experience the second time around!