Carve is making the art smaller as it progresses, help please

I am carving flag stars from the bottom up. The first several rows carve fine, then the top 4 rows start to make the stars smaller in each progressive row…

image

SVG file looks fine, and it simulates fine in VCarve Pro. Can anyone help me understand what I am doing wrong? I hate to waste a flag because of this.
Thanks in advance.
Fred

Hey Fred,

To me it looks like you bit moved up in the router as you were cutting,
or your work piece wasn’t flat. That is just my guess! Hope you get it
figured out. Shame to waste a carve.

Cheers,

Neil

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It appears the stock is thinner, bowed or the table sags… I would check dimensions

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Yep, your material surface is not parallel to the bed. Either bowed in the center, or thinner on the top edge. In the past when I haven’t surfaced, I’ve had this issue. If it’s bad enough, I don’t move anything, but once the carve is going wrong I know I’ll go back into the SVG, and just reset the cut file to do the problem vectors. I’ll take a new Z reading right on that area, and recut.

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I would start by running a leveling pass on the bed and also check for sawdust in your collet that might be letting the bit slip.

Gentlemen, Thank you for your fast response and sharing your knowledge and experience. Yes, the flag was bowed and lower at the top. I put shims under it to level, probed Z and everything was fixed. Thanks again!

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