Best Practices for work areas that are larger than the CNC b

[sm38240]

All,

I am milling a series of 20mm diameter holes in an 8 x 13 grid. I lay out the grid in Vcarve Pro and then generate two files and two sets of g-codes, one for the first pass which gets all but two of the rows of holes, then a second run to finish out those two rows. Between runs, I index the work piece in the Y direction, allowing the last two rows to be milled, basically pulling them into the working area of the CNC. In the second run, I use the offset feature when setting up my work piece and the offset is the same as the distance that I index the MDF. I also bore two reference holes in which two SS pins are installed to reference the work piece.

So with that background, I end up with about a 15 thousandths error. The last two rows are offset by this amount, actually getting more pronounced the further you go.

What is best practice when your work piece exceeds to working area of the bed in the Y direction? The easy answer is a smaller work piece or a larger bed:) but aside from this answer are there best practices you can point me to?

Thanks,

Stan

[gkas]

Toolpath Tiling http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V9 ... rks=tiling

[metalworkz]

Aside from the tiling option which is a great tool and works very wel, you can also just re-position your work on the machine as needed to cut the entire surface. Either way you will need enough throat depth or clearance on the machine so that the material will not jam on the machine frame etc. If you reposition your material you will need to divide your vectors into small enough divisions so as to make toolpaths for each position of the material. The tiling option basically simplifies the whole process and I would recommend using that option if your version of the software includes it. My small CNC mill only has about 6" travel in the Y and I have often used repositioning to do items larger than a 6" Y travel on that machine. I realize the best option was asked for but if the tiling option is not available in your older version then just might be able to use repositioning to get it done. Hope this might help someone!
Wes