pocket missed a bit

[urbansickness]

made a cupboard door for a guy at work, with a large pocket and raised letters. large area clearance with a .5 inch end mill then finish pass with .125 inch. the toolpath preview looks fine but in the letter 'a' and 's' a bit was left behind?

Also the toolpaths generated had some really wasteful moves where it was carrying out a ridiculous amount of small plunges to nibble a bit then move. i think the time could have been halved without these small plunges.

Any thoughts

[Adrian]

Those parts coincide with the two different toolpaths for the pocket so it looks like two different types of bit were used (downcut, upcut) and/or the z-zero wasn't set accurately between tool changes.

There is often a slight difference where the clearing and main toolpaths meet but this is far more pronounced than that.

[Rcnewcomb]

Also the toolpaths generated had some really wasteful moves where it was carrying out a ridiculous amount of small plunges to nibble a bit then move. i think the time could have been halved without these small plunges.

That is sometimes a sign that the area you are trying to machine is the sames size/too small for the specified end mill.

An alternate way to approach this design is to use a VCarve strategy with a flat depth using the V bit and the 1/2" end mill.

See the attached file for an example.