3D Relief toolpath - can't machine below bottom of material.
I have my material defined (0.77" thick) and am using the bottom of the material as zero. My "reflief" is around the periphery of the material. I am using a ball end mill to get a smooth finish but that means it needs to go below the material bottom surface to fully machine the sides. It will not do this even though I tried setting the "Last Z Slice" to a negative value. It didn't complain about this but it ignored it.
I also tried the Multiple Z Passes option just to see if that would do it and it also won't do it.
Can it not do this with relief toolpaths? That would really suck. It does this with profiles.
Comments
When I do reliefs I take a set of calipers get the thickness of the material I then do my toolpaths I zero from the top of the material. If I am doing just 2d cut outs I zero from the table. Okay going back to the relief cutouts I make sure I do not go below the material bottom (I do not want to cut my table (it's kind of spendy to replace). The reason why the software does not allow you to cut below the surface if you are zeroing from the table. If you want to go blow the surface of your table zero from the top of your material (I don't think its a good practice, even if you have a mdf table top). It would be better to use a knife to remove the bur or a file or a flap sander even a round-over with a bearing could be used, just don't get used to milling your table.
mike
I was zeroing off the table top to make it easy making a tool change after the top corner gets machined away. I guess I can use a block of the same MDF so I can zero on the top surface for the second tool. I'll try that, thanks.
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