If you're experiencing any sort of variation in depth across your material while carving, it may be that your wasteboard isn't completely flat relative to your spindle. The best way to make sure your wasteboard is flat, relative to the spindle, is to use the machine itself to skim off or plane the top layer of your wasteboard. This is a required step for the best carving results, especially with v-bits and fine detailed carves, and we've included this step as part of the assembly.
Over time, with changes in temperature and humidity, you may see minor inconsistencies in your carving depth reappear. The MDF wasteboard material, although manufactured to be flat, can still expand and contract with those temperature and humidity changes. To correct this, simply go back through our planing project to skim off the top layer of your wasteboard one more time.
Planing projects can be found here:
4x4 X-Carve Pro Planing Project
4x2 X-Carve Pro Planing Project
The Easel Planing Project assumes you are using a 1.125" surfacing bit and will require Easel Pro, but the Pro features can be removed if you do not have a subscription.
If you do not use Easel Pro, you can create a project similar to this one using your preferred software. A few things to consider:
- The surfacing area extends slightly outside of the work area to ensure the bit clears the correct width.
- The surfacing area for 4x2 planing should be 48" x 25.125".
- We use a .01" overall depth when planning to only remove the surface, you may adjust this up to .05" or run several passes as needed.
Alternatively, you can download the gcode file (.nc) provided below and import it into Easel or your preferred gcode sender. Keep in mind, cut settings cannot be modified in gcode files.