Answered
area clear question
In Carveco Maker, I usually do a rough and finish area clear but I have not been getting a really nice finished edge. If I were to add an allowance to the finished tool path it seems that would be useless because the rough path would have milled to the edge of the vector leaving nothing for the finish path to leave. How can I have a rough and finish path and still use an allowance on the finish path? I could offset another vector just a little in the model and assign it to the rough path but I think there must be a way of doing this. I have searched the tutorials with no luck, if there is something on this subject I would like to be directed to it.
Any thoughts
Comments
Just a small question or two.
What does your vector look like? How many nodes do you have?
Is your vector squiggly? How big is your step over in the toolpath?
If your vectors are 45 or so % to your X,Y axis you will have a chunky type of finish, kind of wish the cnc control software would improve the movement of the spindle, but I haven't seen that kind of improvement.
If your step over is large then its going to look nasty. If your vector is squiggly the bit will follow the vector and the finish will look nasty. If you have a lot of nodes you will have the tendency to have a nasty finish.
These are just my observation of using a cnc for a few days.
In maker do you have a tool to "offset the vector"? if you do use it to make the line a little smaller, sometimes with wood the end mill will chunk (pull) out end grain, so if you can avoid that by making a smaller vector the by all means do that just for the roughing toolpath. Reduce your step over in the finish to see how that improves the look.
Oh forgot (I sometimes fall into this) how old is your end mill? Is it sharp, over used, nasty and not sharp? good quality bits give a good quality finish.
mike
is an 8x10 vector that has very straight vectors
7 nodes
stepover is 10% of tool dia
Brand new end mill
I did a raster clear I think I might try a radial but I would still like to do an allowance on the finish pass without having the rough pass leave nothing for the finish pass
mike

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