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JCBROTZ
01-14-2007, 09:48 AM
Hello I picked up my compu-carve last week and have been playing around with it trying to everything from cut outs to picture carvings the quality is not what I was expecting with the cut outs I'm trying to onlays for cabinets and the edges of the cuts you see each cut and am getting some fairly rough edges. Probably something I'm doing but need some guidence so I can be happy with me purchase.

thanks,
Charlie

BobHill
01-14-2007, 10:27 AM
JC,

How about entering in a photo image of what you are attempting as well as the MPC file you are using to cut/carve with? That'll give us all a chance to perhaps find the problem.

Bob

JCBROTZ
01-14-2007, 10:55 AM
Here is one of the projects that I am trying to carve that turned out rough. I am just uploading a photo project to carve that I adjusted some setting to see the results. I'm going to see if I have any luck this time.

SpiffyDog
01-14-2007, 11:31 AM
What kind of wood are you using?

Dan-Woodman
01-14-2007, 11:49 AM
after you upload the project , what quality setting are you selecting.
You have a choice of draft , normal or best.

David M.
01-14-2007, 12:11 PM
The other thing you should look into is the BIT OPTIMIZE feature, I've done some carviongs with and without this feature and using it improves your finished carving dramaticly. However don't apply the feature till your done designing, it take a lot of processing time if it's turn on while you are still designing.

JCBROTZ
01-14-2007, 12:34 PM
I've tried white oak, Black walnut and cherry so far and have about the same results with all of them. I have it set to best and also have used and not used bit optimzation that probably helped the most but I still can not use any of the cut outs that I have made. The all have vertical lines at each pass and lots of roughness.

JCBROTZ
01-14-2007, 02:36 PM
should I expect very smooth carvings or just somewhat smooth I don't think that I am expecting to much in thinking that they should be 90% smooth and not having to do alot of sanding/scraping to get them to be usable. I looked in the project forum and they all looked extremely smooth.

Thanks,
Charlie

Jeff_Birt
01-14-2007, 03:53 PM
Do you have a picture of the vertical line? This sounds like a loose Z-truck. Grab a hold of the Z-truck and try to wiggle it. There should be NO play in the bearings.

JCBROTZ
01-14-2007, 07:04 PM
unfortunatly I'm at work and don't have a pic right now but I will get one tomarrow I will also give the Z truck a wiggle and let you know. The depths of the holes on some of the inlays are different and some don't go all the way thru. I suspect this is all related hopefully tomarrow I will get a hold of Sears and Carvewright to get to this figuired out.

David M.
01-14-2007, 07:18 PM
JCBROTZ

I played with your job here and this is what I came up with. I didn't have a piece of wood quit large enough so I let the machine scale it down to 8". Is this as rough as or rougher than yours? I have minor ledges on the sides but mostly in the cross grain where the machine chattered a little, but minor sanding is removing it. I sanded and wire brushed it for 10 minutes or so but other than that it's straight off the machine.

JCBROTZ
01-14-2007, 08:05 PM
If mine looked that good after 20 min I'd be happy. Mine had pretty bad roughness in the center to the point where the raised portions came off befor the lower was closed to smooth and the sides of mine had much heavier etchings from the bit making the layers looked more like slopes. Some of the lower points on the carving were noticably lower/higher that the others this has happened with most of the other I have mirrored also.

Thanks,
Charlie

Dan-Woodman
01-14-2007, 08:44 PM
Are you useing the tapered 1/16" spiral carveing bit. Not the straight cutting bit.

David M.
01-14-2007, 08:48 PM
The one thing I suggest you try is to delete the rectangle from your layout, then select all the componants and right click your mouse and use OUTLINE PATTERN to create a proper cut path. Then assign a bit and a cut of depth and you might get a better result. Thats what I did to get these results I did. Also if you havent tried a wire brush does alot of cleanup quickly leaving a nice unblemished finish.

Another thing that works good for me is to spray the carving down with a light coat of lacquer or clear coat before I try to sand, it makes the fuzzy ends easier to clean up.

JoeyZ
01-14-2007, 09:01 PM
Yeah it looks like you need to put your bit optimization at best. Also, when you upload the file make sure to select best on the quality as well. It will drastically raise your carve time but the results will be much smoother when you done as well.

David M.
01-14-2007, 09:02 PM
I did use the BEST setting in the bit optimize for the sample above.

JCBROTZ
01-15-2007, 06:43 PM
I tryed this carving again to day the way that you said to with grouping the shapes and it did come out better. EXCEPT I got a Z axis error and of course it then woud not finish the carveing. It went through differently this time in that it did the carving then "routing edge" when it did this it basicly traced the outline of the carving. except that it never lowered into any wood it stayed about 1/2 in up carving was in half inch lumber. Don't think this is normal??? Then it asked for the 1/8 cutting bit installed and tried to find home/low point/bit level what ever you want to call it and gave me the Z-axis error and carving is not a carved frissby.

JCBROTZ
01-16-2007, 03:17 PM
from bad to worst I now have a 246 error that will not go away I have 17 hrs of run time and only one good piece and alot of fire wood. I was expecting a learning curve but think I got a lemon. Sears is of even less help that I thought will try to get ahold of CW hoping for a fix I love the Idea of the machine and really want to keep it but only have a 15 day window to get $$$$ back. Hoping for the best Please advise