Contour Lines in VCarve Letters

[pgh3]

Hello All, I have looked but can't find anything that covers my query.
I'm carving some letters and numbers in V-Carve Pro and I'm using a 90 degree two-bladed cutter in Merbau and I'm getting contour lines or steps in the cut as per the attached photos.
I have played around with the settings of the cutter, ie, clearance, overlap, etc, but without knowing exactly what these mean, the results warrant me asking for help.
I would like to know why these steps are there, what am I doing wrong and how do I remove them.
Thanks,
Peter

[Adrian]

The Help Contents within the program explain what each of those settings does.

Issues like that generally aren't software settings though. They're either movement in the machine, incorrect angle bit (very common), a bit with a flat where the toolpath has been generated with a point (and vice versa), uneven spoilboard, z axis out of plumb and a few others.

First thing I would check is if the bit really is 90 degrees. More often than you might think they are a couple of degrees out either way. This thread - viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2164 - will show you some tests for that.

[martin54]

Just to add to what Adrian has said another possible cause could be bad vectors, with any text that comes from a bitmap trace theere are often problems but even with text that has been typed often TT fonts have inbuilt problems for any process other than printing

[pgh3]

Gentlemen, thank you for your assistance with this. I agree with what you have pointed out and found that one of the cutters measured 90.7 degrees using an electronic protractor and low powered microscope.
But I believe the need to understand the tool parameters in VCarve is paramount to quality machining and by changing these settings in the tool database allowed me to achieve the desired output. From the attached photo, you can see the left side with very fine clearance settings while on the right, the parameters had been changed to produce a better result, even without using a clearance tool to remove the flat areas first. I will keep tweaking and learning about this comprehensive software and again, I thank you for your help with this.

Peter

[TReischl]

You are actually figuring out what your machine can and cannot do.

[sharkcutup]

Awesome!

You are learning about all the variables involved within the process. You are learning how they affect the outcome. By making various adjustments within the software can either better or worsen the projects outcome based on your machine performance. You are also learning that the correct tool dimensions can play a part in the overall outcome.

Sharkcutup