Designer problem, machine problem card problem or a me problem?

[Iron Mike]

This is what I did.

1. I did a design of a 13-1/4" diameter plaque in Designer2 with a board size of 14-1/2x21.

2. When I had it all finished I made up a nice cherry board with very good edges that the machine measured (option #7) at ~14-1/4x25.

3. These measurements I entered into the program, made adjustments to recenter the design on the new board size and uploaded onto the card.

4. The machine then ran the program and measured the project at 18+" x 14-1/4" and asked if I wanted to rescale to that board size.

5. Erased the project from the card, checked and reentered the same design board size again and reloaded. Got the same results as in steps 2 and 4 (several times). Used masking tape, turned the board over and switched end-to-end.

I wanted to finish the project so I ran it and the diameter turned out to be 9-1/4" instead of the 13-1/4" I would have preferred. Am I missing something? Other designs have measured correctly and worked out fine. :confused:

Any help would be appreciated.

[bergerud]

You answered YES to stay under the rollers. The machine then calculated 25 - 7 = 18 because it needs an extra 7" to stay under the rollers. If you had just said NO to stay under the rollers, the project would have gone as you planned. As long as your pattern was 3.5" from each end of the real board, it would have stayed under the rollers on its own. (One of the problems here is that Designer takes the pattern size as the size of the virtual board you made in Designer instead of the actual carve size.)

[Iron Mike]

Strange, it never asked about staying under the rollers for this project! EVER! Other carvings have though. ???????????????????

So in designing I should use a board size close to the actual size of the pattern, then use a longer board or a sled?

[FWMiller]

My recommendation would be to not make the designer board match the size of the actual board. Make the designer board just big enough to fit your design and then center it on the work piece which you sized with the extra length already. It also avoids running into board measurements that are .050 too short and then the machine wanting to scale it.

[Iron Mike]

Going to give it another go - the machine and I seem to speak a different language or perhaps it's just that we think differently.

Thanks for the inputs - my old brain is a little slower on learning and understanding concepts than it was decades ago.

[mtylerfl]

Going to give it another go - the machine and I seem to speak a different language or perhaps it's just that we think differently.

Thanks for the inputs - my old brain is a little slower on learning and understanding concepts than it was decades ago.

Perhaps you may find the following article helpful:

Scaling and How to Avoid It! – ISSUE 18 March 2009 (http://www.carvewright.com/assets/tips/CarveWrightTips_and_Tricks_Mar09.pdf)

[bergerud]

Strange, it never asked about staying under the rollers for this project! EVER! Other carvings have though. ???????????????????

So in designing I should use a board size close to the actual size of the pattern, then use a longer board or a sled?

At the keypad press 0 - 5 - 4 - 2. What does it say? (ASK), (NEVER), or (ALWAYS)

[Iron Mike]

Perhaps you may find the following article helpful:

Scaling and How to Avoid It! – ISSUE 18 March 2009 (http://www.carvewright.com/assets/tips/CarveWrightTips_and_Tricks_Mar09.pdf)

That helps a lot . . . . Thanks.