How do you get rid of feathered edges

[GSchm87408]

The graphics and text at the top of the board have a feathered or rough edge that makes the carving not clean and crisp how can you improve this please

[Jeff_Birt]

I'm unclear what your describing. Do you have any pictures and/or the mpc file?

[want2b]

Go to techniques section of forum and look at page 2, thread Poll. Gives a variety of methods.

[GSchm87408]

I guess what i am describing is a chipped edge at the surface of the board very slight but there to see
like a radius but it is not clean straight down into the graphic or text
it makes the carving look fuzzy. I don't belive it will and does not clean up with a brush.
Is it a function of bit optimization or cutting mode?

[Jeff_Birt]

Again, without a picture of your carving and/or your mpc file it is impossible to know what your problem might be. Are you importing a graphic (.jpg etc) by chance?

[GSchm87408]

Thank you for your reply
I am sorry to be a bother
I will post a picture of the carving and the problem as i see it.
It happens on some of my other carvings as well
Yes i imported from the clipboard out of corel a jpeg for this carving. It is a very basic black and white picture that i inverted the black for the white and it has no exterme carving picture on it
But on close inspection you see crisp clean edge on the screen in designer but the carving is chipped away ever so slightly, lets say .005 at the top, like a chatter.
In this instance i have a flat background square all the way around the carving, it is crisp and clean .125 down and square at the top.
It looks nice, so i know it is capable of doing it
but the carving in the center of the background which is also .125 down, should be better it has a chatter or a chipped look to it just at the top of the edge or rim where it goes down into the carving for both text and graphics it is very annoying.
This is also a paying job and would love /have to get it right.
I certainly appreciate your help.
Thank you
Glenn

[CallNeg151]

Well, without seeing what you are talking about, my guess is that what you are describing is caused by jpeg artifacting around the edges in the .jpg image. Although these are more or less invisible to the naked eye, they show up in the carving because a 1/256th shade variant caused by artifacting causes a depth change in the carving. If you are creating an image from scratch, or are working from a vector image to begin with, consider saving the image in .png format. This format will not have artifacting, and will lead to clean edges.

[Jeff_Birt]

Glenn, I think CallNeg151 is right. Sounds like a result of the .jpg compression process.

[GSchm87408]

Thank you for your input. A couple of questions
Will all jpegs do this?
Can i save the original jpeg as a .ptn, .bmp and will it still do this . Does it have to be a .png
And last do i have start from scratch with a new drawing do get rid of this particular problem.

[Jeff_Birt]

.jpg will always do this, bmp, gif, and png will not. gif and png have the advantage of allowing for a transparent background.

[GSchm87408]

Thanks very much this will help a lot. As i am still a new carver since Feb 13
So i should stay away from jpgs. As a rule!
And one last question as I understand it, yes i will have to start over to get away from this problem on this carving. Once you start with a jpeg it won't matter what you save it as?

Thanks
Glenn

[Jeff_Birt]

Right once you save it as a .jpg it has those artifacts (from the lossey compression) for life. It then does not matter what you save it as. Bill from Florida had some posts a few months back that really explained it all pretty well, made it much clearer for me anyhow. Now I only save CW artwork as gif or png.

[GSchm87408]

Thank you very much to all for your help
And to you Mr. Jeff Birt for your input and help for a new carver.
The machine is very cool and has a lot of potential once one learns how to work it.
I do believe i too, am afflicted with the addiction of woodcarving with the C.W.
I look forward to working with the forum and maybe some day when i grow up (LOL) i can help somebody else here !

Thanks again
Glenn

[Dirtydan]

What bit do you all use for carving text? I know this seems like a dumb question, but I've been using the 1/16 carving bit and the outline format. All the edges seem to be rough, :( almost looks like the bit was going up and down, just punching out the wood. This is not the case, because it looks like a nice smooth cut when the machine is working... I'm not using an imported JPG or GIF text image. I used the cutting bit when sizing the project, and it seems to make a nice smooth cut. It that the bit I should be using?

[pkunk]

I use one of the v-groove bits for outline. And while you can cut out your project with the 1/8" cutting bit, if you have other shop tools that will do the job (faster and cleaner) - why?

[Dirtydan]

Well, I'm still waiting for bits from CW... Just got my 1/8 Ogee two days ago... Guess I could order a couple of extra Adapters and then use my normal rotor bits... or is that not a good Idea?

I'm still just playing with the machine... Keep trying something different each time so I can find out what works and don't work.

Thanks for the reply...

[pkunk]

Well, I'm still waiting for bits from CW... Just got my 1/8 Ogee two days ago... Guess I could order a couple of extra Adapters and then use my normal rotor bits... or is that not a good Idea?

I'm still just playing with the machine... Keep trying something different each time so I can find out what works and don't work.

Thanks for the reply...
You can get adapters from Sears-search the forum theres a link somewhere. I use v-groove bits from other sources, no problem.