Hi there! Did my first engrave on bamboo. I am pleased overall except for the random line that popped up in my design (easy fix). I have a question though… why does it smell like a$$ now? I am going to leave it over night and hope the smell dissipates but fresh it stinks. Didnt stink when I was cutting it but it does now.
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Just a design feedback: The tangency of the S makes it harder to discern. I read this as “Moke local” for a few moments. You might consider adjusting so the S doesn’t touch the border.
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I can see that now. I think it’s because it is small. I use this design on larger items and it works. Will have to make the adjustment when I get rid of the phantom line
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Phantom lines are definitely a problem with some fonts. It’s one of those things you gotta look out for. Sounds like you got a handle on how to solve it, like you said should only take a minute of path manipulation.
Funny thing is that it wasn’t in the original design file because I have used that file to cut vinyl multiple times. I copied it over to a new file to make sure the original.didnt get messed up. Guess I made the right call lol Its not a font issue though it might have been a swatch issue when I added some distressing
Distressed or grungy fonts are the worst offenders, when you convert them to paths sometimes the nodes get joined in unexpected ways.
Always a good idea to set your path to have a thin stroke with no fill just to be sure the shapes look right – any weird horizontal lines would probably show up. Then switch them back to fill/no path before you want to engrave.
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The stray line is very likely either an open path/nodes or overlapping nodes. There’s been a lot of discussion about it and you can search for “line engraving” or “open nodes” and you should find several topics. Here’s a few to get you started…
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Great Irony that it stinks when you smoke the wrong grass 
However, I have found when I clean the work with alcohol hand cleaner the masking and residue come off as well as much of the burnt smell. If I have a warping issue I clamp it flat and dry it, I then treat the wood with a furniture cleaner oil that also has a slight orange scent. At that point the smell of cutting is hardly detectable.
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Honestly it took me a second… I was like “WHAT S?!”
@juliarr123 I’ve done a bit of bamboo and never noticed any off-putting odors. I’ve read people treating their materials with a pleasant smell or alcohol when necessary. Also, some people have said just leaving stinky materials alone overnight it’s gone away.
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Are you sure it was pure bamboo? A lot of times when I got Bamboo, it was treated with lacquer or oils. So what you are smelling could be the chemicals burning and not the bamboo. I never had a problem when I had untreated bamboo.
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I think this design would look better with a simplified WA outline, omitting a lot of the cut-in in the upper left. That would also crowd the “S” less and make it easier to read.
I would guess there might be something “in” that bamboo. I did that cutting board for my folks’ Birthdays and it really didn’t even smell burnt when it was done. rather amazing
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Calling something “Bamboo” is like calling something “tree” as it covers a rather wide array of species, however getting from jointed tubes to any other shape is as varied as the number of species so I would think that each source would be different,
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