need some advise

I have had good luck with most fonts, have not actually had one that did not work well. Now the first thing you will want to do on your lettering, is to apply a gaussian blur so that you letters come out with a rounded edges effect. I use this whether I am making raised or recessed letters. When creating your project you can experiment with what values of blur work the best for you by applying a blur , then zoom in on the lettering and see if you have a rounded edge effect on the letters, I am using GIMP free graphics program, and usually use a blur value in the 6 to 10 range for lettering. Here are 3 examples of the letter A done with Times New Roman Bold Font. The first is without any blur effect, the problem you will have with that is the edges of the letter will be straight up and down which could cause chipping while carving or doing your finish work and any one letter messed up is a flop project.


This one has had blur effect of 6 applied in GIMP, you will see when you zoom in that the edges now have been somewhat rounded.


This one has a blur effect of 10 applied in GIMP and here you see when zoomed in that the letter has much more rounded effect.


I am not sure how those values would compare with Photoshop, but you would just have to experiment. This blur, rounded edge effect is needed for raised or recessed letters and pretty much anything you are designing to carve, looking at any of the sample images that came with the machine you will see that effect on all edges when you zoom in on the image. Hope this helps some.

For me the end mill bits do not serve any great purpose other than clearing out maybe a recess area, being an 1/8" wide cutter you will not get the detail for most carvings. The 1/32" conical bit that comes with the machine works pretty good however I always use the 1/50" conical now. As far as carving on poplar you will find that you get a lot of fuzzies on all the surfaces of your carve, this is true of most of the softer woods, Hardwoods carve the best. I personally have not stained but maybe 2 or 3 pieces because of prefer the natural look of the wood and do all my finishing with sprayed clear lacquer. One other note is that while Oak is a very pretty wood, sometimes the grain will over power what you have carved into it taking away from the design. I use mostly Maple, Cherry and some Walnut.

Here is an example of how oak grain can "take over a carving",. kinda over powers the carved part.

Keep your machine clean, blow off your limit switches, and run your 1013 on it's own circuit. always check bounderies, and have fun

Pricing, now that is hard to judge but I generally will not make anything for less than 20 bucks. You need to take into account everything that has a cost for you to make the item,..time to make the design, cost of wood, time the machine is running, your finishing time, finishing supplies and don't forget the wear on those expensive carving bits which will start to dull after 10 to 15 carves. Your personal time working on a piece you won't be making a lot in that dept, but you at least need to recover your costs in the other areas plus some profit so to speak.

You might try to use a different USB stick to see if that is the problem or if it is the actual USB port on the machine. I have several USB sticks that I use and one of them has an issue of not fitting up right and the machine sometimes does not recognize that it is plugged in. If the problem is with the machine I would get in touch with Oliver for your warranty. There really should not be anything that is loose fitting on the machine.

It sounds like the USB port on your machine is the problem, definitely would not do anything to the machine being that it is new and under warranty. I believe that Nick is who you need to speak with but unfortunately based on a previous post of his, I believe he is in Taiwan visiting the factory there. Normally I would recommend speaking personally to someone at Oliver and you might still give that a try ( remembering that they are Pacific Time zone when you call ) they could give you Nick's email as well so that he can be aware of your problem. Once you have the problem resolved the machine seems to be solidly built ( Mine being 4 yrs old at this time ) I do think the USB port area should be a little better reinforced to eliminate issues in that area.

" I am guess the usb port is just a plug in devise"

Read more: olivermachinery.boards.net/post/1670/edit#ixzz3dEmKmjZG

I am curious to find out what they are actually going to send you, because unless something has changed in the machine design the USB port is soldered onto the motherboard. Another member, Rick had part of his just come undone and the fix involved getting a new motherboard for the machine. You might want to clarify what they are sending you, so that you can be fixed sooner instead of a delay with the wrong part for the fix.