Fuzzies

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Clockman
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Fuzzies

Post by Clockman »

What is the best way to get rid of fuzzies left after carving signs or clipart

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martin54
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by martin54 »

Guess there will be loads of different methods, hopefully I will learn something from your post as well :lol: :lol:

For me it depends on the type of material & the toopath as well, for short(ish) toolpaths like text that don't take a lot of time to run I will sometimes run the toolpath again, sometimes with the z dropped a fraction :lol: :lol:
i have a few brushes with nylon, brass & wire bristles, from a toothbrush to hoe cleaning type brush size, these often work well, I also use a dremel with various rotary brushes, again nylon, plastic brass etc. I also have a couple of sets of needle files & find these work well with stuborn bits the brushes can't manage or the dremel doesn't fit into.
Really I have just experimented with different things I had that I thought might work :lol: :lol: :lol:

Just to add, sometimes with 3D carving altering the stepover slightly can also prevent them in the first place :lol:

Clockman
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by Clockman »

martin54 wrote: Just to add, sometimes with 3D carving altering the stepover slightly can also prevent them in the first place
Thank you Martin, I will try altering the stepover it would be better to prevent it in the first place

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martin54
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by martin54 »

Problem I often find is that there is often no consistency (that I can find), what works well one day for a particular type of wood might not work well the next :lol: :lol:
If I start a 3D carving & after it has cut a little I notice that I am having problems with fuzzies I will often stop the machine, redo the toolpath with a slight change to the stepover & then restart from the point I left off. There are also other changes I might make like changing the direction of the cut & cutting across the grain rather than with it. Some people have said that cutting at an angle can make a difference 22.5 degrees is the figure they have mentioned but I haven't really had time to experiment with that yet.
Quite often the roughing cut will give me some indication of how I need to toolpath the finish cut, most of this has really been me experimenting trying different things to try & reduce the amount of clean up & sanding I have to do lol
There have been some types of wood I would rather just stay clear of though because so far I have not been able to find anything that really works that well :lol: :lol:

For really shallow stuff (text & vcarving) then something else that seems to work is to give the wood a coat of sanding sealer before carving, this can not only help with fuzzies but with tearout as well :lol: :lol: I use a spirt based shellac sanding sealer which dries really quickly but I would have thought that other types would work as well :lol:

Jan.vanderlinden
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by Jan.vanderlinden »

I have been experimenting with shellac as well.
Like Martin, I too am finding that if you coat the wood first, it will help in eliminating the tearout problem. (key word, "help")
What i am also doing is to give the project a coat of shellac after carving, let the shellac dry, drop the Z ~.003 - .005 and re-run the program.
When the shellac is dry, it will make the fuzzies hard and stiff, making them easier to cut off.
When I do this, I do not cut out the project from the scrap.
That way I can easily reset the project on the machine bed and the X and Y will not be lost.
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SteveNelson46
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by SteveNelson46 »

A sanding mop works pretty good. I bought one from the Carvewright website.

https://store.carvewright.com/product.p ... 299&page=1
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sharkcutup
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by sharkcutup »

Many times I have found rerunning the carve program again removes a good bit of the fuzzies.

I have not tried the shellac method after first cut but it does tend to make sense in that it stiffens the material when dry allowing a better cut. Will have to give this a try sometime!

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Re: Fuzzies

Post by TReischl »

Has a lot to do with carbide cutters. Think snowplow. They may "last" three times longer than HSS but they cost at least 3X times more while they plow through the wood.

Carbide is great for exotics and other wood with lots of silica in it. Their plowing action becomes very evident in soft woods. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any HSS vbits.
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Jan.vanderlinden
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by Jan.vanderlinden »

I've thought about a sanding mop also.
But don't you lose detail using one of those?
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by Rcnewcomb »

An addition to the excellent suggestions above don't forget scrapers and chisels.
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Clockman
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Re: Fuzzies

Post by Clockman »

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions, I will try them all, I like Jan Vanderlinden's idea of dropping Z .003-.005 after coating with shellac, that should eliminate a lot of the fuzzies, I think the sanding mop will not get into tight corners and also loose some detail, but it is worth a try

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Re: Fuzzies

Post by Mikehell »

Best way I've found so far is to not carve poplar or pine. Choice of material makes a huge difference.

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