Vectric Customer

Got my CNC back in Jan and I'm still extremely green. Currently working on my 3rd attempt at an inlay. My question is this. The inlay I am working on now is 32 inches by 22 inches. I finished the female part today with a .25 inch End Mill roughing tool and then a .25 inch 60 degree V bit but this second portion took 3.5 hours, which is also equal to FOREVER. After I was done I decided to get back on Aspire and rerun the toolpath with a 90 degree V bit .50 inches and it knocked the time down a whopping 2.5 hours to right at 1 hour. I have watched a ton of videos and read tons of comments on this board but still a bit confused in many ways. After I rand the toolpath simulation the file looked the same. This is information for next time...what exactly is the advantage of using a 60 degree smaller .25 inch V bit over the larger .50 inch 90 degree V bit? Any help would be greatly appreciated. G.D.

without seeing a pic it is hard to tell. The depth of a v carve is determined by the width of the lines involved. So a .25 bit would have to go deeper and maybe more than one pass to get between the lines, the larger bit would go down less in depth to get in between the lines so it could possibly do it faster, if that makes any sense.

Bob

Check your tool data base for both tools...is the feed rate the same for both?

If you are doing a v carve the bit changes the depth of the cut by going from 60 to 90.

However you question about an inlay is strange to me. Why do you have a v bit for an inlay? A flat pocket, and a flat part that fits in it is an inlay right? If the inlay sticks out above the base material, then I could see adding detail to the upper part of the inlay.

Ken Rychlik wrote:If you are doing a v carve the bit changes the depth of the cut by going from 60 to 90.

However you question about an inlay is strange to me. Why do you have a v bit for an inlay? A flat pocket, and a flat part that fits in it is an inlay right? If the inlay sticks out above the base material, then I could see adding detail to the upper part of the inlay.

It may seem strange to you, Ken, but using a vbit to do an inlay is an excellent method of doing inlays that have very sharp corners. It is a technique that has been used for years with this software. When done correctly there are none of the normal issues associated with a "normal" inlay technique. Browse around the gallery and you will find some examples of this technique and they are astounding.

Old dog, new trick I guess.

Hard to say without seeing the file but your extra time may be down to the width of the Vbit &/or the pass depth. At 0.25 the 60 degree V Bit may have had to do multiple passes where the 0.5 90 egree bit did not.

I would look at your tool settings in the tool database to check the pass depth for each bit, I would then try toolpathing with a wider 60 degree bit to see if it reduces the time at all, even if you don't currently own a wider 60 deg bit it doesn't stop you experimenting with set ups using the toolpath preview

It would, of course, be much less confusing to newcomers if the inlay technique discovered and freely disclosed at this forum in 2006 by Paul Zank was routinely called Zank inlay, or Zank V-carve Inlay Procedure, or.... anyway, you get the point. Paul Zank discovered the technique and selflessly disclosed the concept so that any interested CNC user could enjoy it. It is really kind of sad that, back in the day when other CNC enthusiasts realized the remarkable power of Mr. Zank's technique, they did not collectively suggest that it be named after him...both to honor the discoverer and to avoid confusion. Instead the names suggested back in the day reflect, (1) Paul Zank's modesty--because he did not deign to name the technique after himself and, (2) a bit of benign carelessness by the earliest enthusiasts who might have realized that it was up to them to attach Zank's name to the technique (again, to honor the discoverer and his generous disclosure of the technique and to avoid confusion with Vectric's "canned" inlay toolpaths, which have very little in common with Zank VIP).

So, for years newcomers to CNC inlay have made the understandable mistake of confusing Zank inlay protocols with Vectric's canned inlay protocols.

CNC Inlay enthusiasts: Please consider incorporating Mr. Zank's name into technical discussions of his inlay technique. It is obvious to experienced users that there have been many nice refinements and derivative extensions of his concept since its 2006 discovery, but a proper name for the technique would get everyone (experienced or newbie) on the same page quickly and would provide a bread-crumb trail for interested people to search back to the origins of the Zank technique without constantly being tripped up by confusing nomenclature.