help - beginner with problems - need advice

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nancybsc1
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Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:56 pm

help - beginner with problems - need advice

Post by nancybsc1 »

Hello everyone -

I am brand new to all of this and am very inspired by all of the photos of your work. I have a few questions for you. I carved my first piece yesterday and while it looks ok, it definitely has some issues. I’m not sure what information you need from me exactly, but here goes…

I used Aspire software - using a piece of .75” poplar, made a dish with an exact height of .5” and an angle of 60 degrees, then added the hummingbird design we purchased from the website. The hummingbird was set for an exact height of .3”.

Material setup: z Zero at the top, thickness 0.73”, gap above model 0”, rapid clearance gap .2”, home position X: 0, Y: 0, Z: 1.0.

For the toolpaths, I did not use a rough cut toolpath, perhaps I should have. The very first attempt at carving, I used the rough cut - but then when it came time to do the finish toolpath the bit never touched the wood - it just floated over the surface never touching the wood itself. My husband who operates the machine recommended I just use two finishing toolpaths (that’s what he uses when he carves the designs that came with the machine).

I used a Ball Nose 0.125”, pass depth - I tried to make it use .25”, but every time I hit calculate it went back to a depth of 0.7665” (does anyone know why it did this? - I checked the screen when you select the tool and it is set for 0.25” - but in edit tool, it always changes to the 0.7665”). Stepover 0.0187” or 15%. Feed rate 5.0, inches/sec and plunge rate 3.0 inches/sec. I used raster with an angle of 0 degrees. The second finishing toolpath is identical to the first except I used a raster with an angle of 90 degrees.

The result was somewhat ‘fuzzy’. You can see lines where the bit carves (I’m guessing I just need to drop the stepover down a bit to fix that), but not enough of the detail shows. It’s just not crisp like I want it to be.

Do any of you have any suggestions? I apologize if the information I gave is not clear - I’m very new to this, and know NOTHING about woodworking - I’m the computer person, my husband is the woodworker and he is terrified of the computer.

Thanks for your help
Nancy Christensen
Gus’s Woodworking

buck4
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Re: help - beginner with problems - need advice

Post by buck4 »

Nancy, after you edit the tool settings, depth of cut, feed and speed and strp over. You will need to click Apply first then Select. If you don't it will return to the setting before changes.
In the roughing tool path setting, there is a box marked "machining Allowance" the amount you enter, will be the amount of stock left on the profile for the finish pass (example .015") will leave 15 thousand of an inch.
Welcome and have fun...........Buck

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Rcnewcomb
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Re: help - beginner with problems - need advice

Post by Rcnewcomb »

Welcome!

I'll try to answer a few questions:
The very first attempt at carving, I used the rough cut - but then when it came time to do the finish toolpath the bit never touched the wood - it just floated over the surface never touching the wood itself.
There is a setting in the roughing toolpath where you specify how much material should be left for the final pass to remove. If this is set to zero then you won't see much material removed by the finish pass.
Rough.JPG
A comment about roughing vs. finish pass:
roughing will use the pass depth of the bit whereas finish will always be at full depth of the design (the assumption is that the bulk of the material was removed during the roughing pass)
Stepover 0.0187” or 15% ....You can see lines where the bit carves
Try a stepover between 8% to 10%. That should eliminate the lines. It should also eliminate the need to do two finish passes -- one should do the trick.

This should help. If it does not then please post photos of the results. Sometimes a picure really is worth 1000 words.
- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

nancybsc1
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:56 pm

Re: help - beginner with problems - need advice

Post by nancybsc1 »

Thanks to both of you who posted suggestions. I've made the changes you suggested and will have my husband run it in the morning. I'll let you know!
Nancy

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