Pierced not fully piercing - in Designer 3.102

[Mike58]

This seems like it should be idiot proof but apparently not. I have attempted to use the pierce feature to cutout around a plaque but in the designer software the plaque is not fully cut out. Board thickness @ 0.75" and the outer most region selected and the pierced box checked. Flip the board over to the rear side and it cuts out fully down one side and partially down the rounded corner then fades away completely. The other end shows a imprint of a line as if the cutout is almost thru the board but not enough to completely cut out until it reaches the rounded corner which does show to cut fully through the board. The remaining side has no indication of cutting at all. When the file was ran on the machine, the results are basically as shown on the software screen.

When pierced is unchecked the depth shows as 0.758", but it is blanked out when pierced is checked. Attached is a screen snapshot to better explain what I am talking about. The bottom object is selected showing that it is fact a pierced carving, then the board was flipped to the rear to show what is happening. Real world results with carving machine is the same.

Please advise what to do, or what I maybe doing wrong.

[bergerud]

What happens if you apply floor feather to the pattern?

[DocWheeler]

Maybe the monitor isn't level

I could not resist!

[Mike58]

What happens if you apply floor feather to the pattern?

hasn't made any difference.

[fwharris]

Could it be possible that there are some areas that are not floored so they would not go to the bottom of the board. Your other option is to put a crave region around your pattern and set that as pierced.

[Mike58]

Could it be possible that there are some areas that are not floored so they would not go to the bottom of the board. Your other option is to put a crave region around your pattern and set that as pierced.

If I understand you right I think that is what I did. The edge is raised and slightly tapered going down to the "bottom" side. That's why I thought this would be the fastest and easiest way to do this. Let the carving bit cut it all out except for 4 tabs to hold the plaque in place.

[fwharris]

Yes after looking at your project I see that is what you have done. If it were me I would go ahead and carve it but would also put a 1/4" feather (I had to flip the feather to get it to work). You might end up with a thin skin in some areas but that should be able to be cut out with a sharp knife. It might also help to hold the part in place.

[Mike58]

Yes after looking at your project I see that is what you have done. If it were me I would go ahead and carve it but would also put a 1/4" feather (I had to flip the feather to get it to work). You might end up with a thin skin in some areas but that should be able to be cut out with a sharp knife. It might also help to hold the part in place.

So is there anything obvious that I did wrong? It looks like to me if the design software doesn't show it to be doing what I am trying to do, that the carving isn't going to either. But I am at a loss why part shows cutting out fully and other places don't. I understand the carving could be different if the board thickness varied but I don't see how that would be the problem in the software.

[Mike58]

Also forgot to add this is double sided. I carved 2 small rectangles in the back for hanging this and a poor text in the center rastered out. I will probably eliminate the dated on the back and laser it instead. This was to be a Valentines gift to my wife. The first one I did in oak was 10" with the board and took over 4 hours to carve. I uploaded the file on best and bit optimization on best on all. On the highest upload setting the engraving time was over 8 hours. Didn't have that much time to do it. Machine sitting on the tailgate of my truck in front of the shop the laser is in. Using a small Craftsman shop vacuum to blow the carvings out of the machine as it ran. Didn't realize the depth was as deep as it was, so the rectangles cut out in the back were cut through from the front due to the front side being cut out so deep. Boy the pattern looked good carved that deep, right up till the holes showed up from the back side. I just bought over $1000 work of software, the centerline text would be nice to have, but I can laser engrave that much faster than I can carve it and have razor sharp edges too.

[bergerud]

Shame on you Doc, it is his first post! LOL (It was funny though!)