Pocket and inlay issue.

[jaru-eri]

When I make a pocket and a round disk that should be placed as an inlay, the pocket is too narrow and the disk too wide. This occur most probably because the end mill is bending a bit when it has to carve into the sides of the wood. Are there other here who have the same problem, and what do you do in order to solve that problem?

[Tailmaker]

This may be they reason, how much is the diameter error?
If it is, you could choose "conventional" milling direction. This will usually pull the bit (and the machine) to make pocket bigger and inserts smaller. If you do that already, there is probably another reason.

[martin54]

What sort of allowance are you adding ? If you are trying to cut the 2 parts at exactly the same size then they will never fit together. How much allowance can vary depending on size & materials used. Cut the male inlay first to the actual size you require, cut the female pocket second with a small allowance & test fit the male with the part you have just cut still on the machine, if it is still to tight a fit then redo your pocket toolpath with a slightly larger allowance or run a profile cut inside the line & slowly increase allowance until you get the required fit

[TomWS]

slowly increase allowance until you get the required fit

Sorry to jump into the middle of this, but I am confused about how to use the allowance parameter(s). In your statement above, you say to 'increase' the allowance to fit the male piece into the pocket.
However, Vectric help info for pocket states: "A positive Pocket Allowance value will make the pocket smaller than the defining closed vector." (https://support.vectric.com/aspire-ques ... e-used-for)
This tells me that I would need to decrease the allowance value to a negative number to make the opening larger.

And for Profile cuts: "For the Inside / Left option, a positive offset value will leave more material on the inside of a closed vector" (https://support.vectric.com/aspire-ques ... t-used-for)

Is this just a terminology thing and your 'increase' is referring to an absolute value, but in a negative direction? Is the simple rule: Go negative if you want to cut deeper into the wall?

[Adrian]

Sorry to jump into the middle of this, but I am confused about how to use the allowance parameter(s). In your statement above, you say to 'increase' the allowance to fit the male piece into the pocket.
However, Vectric help info for pocket states: "A positive Pocket Allowance value will make the pocket smaller than the defining closed vector." (https://support.vectric.com/aspire-ques ... e-used-for)
This tells me that I would need to decrease the allowance value to a negative number to make the opening larger.

And for Profile cuts: "For the Inside / Left option, a positive offset value will leave more material on the inside of a closed vector" (https://support.vectric.com/aspire-ques ... t-used-for)

Is this just a terminology thing and your 'increase' is referring to an absolute value, but in a negative direction? Is the simple rule: Go negative if you want to cut deeper into the wall?

Pocket toolpaths and the pocket inlay toolpath are not the same thing. In a pocket toolpath a negative allowance will make the pocket bigger and a positive will make it smaller. On the female pocket inlay toolpath negative values are not supported and any value entered makes the pocket inlay larger.

[TomWS]

Pocket toolpaths and the pocket inlay toolpath are not the same thing.

I totally missed that distinction. Thank you for the clarification.

[martin54]

TomWS to be 100% clear & honest I don't always remember which way the allowances work within the software & sometimes I will add a large allowance & then look at the 2D preview to determine if I need a positive or negative allowance
Didn't have the software on the computer I was using when I replied, sorry for any confussion I may have caused.

Looks like Adrian handed me a get out of jail free card on this one but in all honesty at the time that I wrote the reply I wasn't really thinking about negative or positive allowances just that it was best to increase the size of the female pocket gradually until you got the desired fit

[TomWS]

Thanks for the comment, Martin. After I understood Adrian's point I can see that your usage was 100% correct, I just didn't appreciate that it was a totally different toolpath.

Being a newbie to VCarve, I am still learning the nuances of the various options and I'm especially stuck on using "Do Separate Last Pass" to remove a final finish pass on a profile, but that's off topic and I'll save that question of another thread.

Thank you again,
Tom