Unexplainable stepping in HDU prism carved letters done on our CC 5F10F

[Charlessigns]

Hi folks

First post on here hopefully the sign community could help me out on this one. We have been attempting to rout our own prism carve HDU letters on our CC 5F10F router and they keep coming out with odd uniform stepping and rough edges on some. We have tightened everything possible within the machine and that seemed to alleviate our rough edge issue, yet the stepping continues to be an issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Zendavor Signs]

That's pretty normal. That should sand smooth very easily.

 

[Charlessigns]

That's pretty normal. That should sand smooth very easily.

Thanks for the response! Thats what I have been thinking. I'm just a bit apprehensive to sand them down by hand because of the possibility of any unevenness being really highlighted once we paint them metallic bronze.

 

[JBurton]

Not really, since the edge is only on one side, it looks like your spindle isn't perfectly perpendicular to your table top. Take a long bit, drill a hole in HDU, and use a micrometer to get the diameter, see if the top side isn't a bit oval'ed out. I'm not familiar with your machine, but typically it's easy to loosen and shim the spindle, but you don't want to go at it willy nilly...

 

[JBurton]

To save the letters, I'd use the purple 3m sanding block. It's good for corners, but also stays flat at minimal pressure, and is 180 grit, so you don't grind edges away too quickly.

3M™ Pro Grade Sanding Sponge - Sherwin-Williams

Ideal for sanding painted surfaces and resists loading which allows for larger sanding coverage.

www.sherwin-williams.com

I just realized I got ripped off at my local sherwin williams!
At any rate, I use this thing all the time. Just don't breathe too much HDU, wear an old covid mask.