I have been milling balsa wood with a 1/8" bit. The stock is 1/4".
I have been using 0.260 as stock thickness.
Selected top of stock.
Selected 0.0625 depth of cut, four passes and the part would be free of the stock.
Initialized cutter.
First cut was 0.190.
Second cut freed the part.
What’s up?
When first getting the machine set up it can be tricky to get everything balanced. Please check the machine mechanically:
Beyond that it’s usually a matter of Calibration and Squaring the Machine c.f., http://docs.carbide3d.com/shapeoko-faq/how-to-calibrate-the-machine-for-belt-stretch/
Also verify that your homing and so forth are correct/consistent: http://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/tutorial-homing/ and http://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/tool-change/ may be helpful as well
Another consideration is feeds and speeds and the nature of your endmill — balsa wood could easily be pulled up into the endmill if using one with upcut flutes.
Given that your first cut was WAY deeper than you specified, I suspect you’ve got some sort of WCS zero issue, or the material isn’t staying down firmly against wasteboard, or as Will points out, you’ve got a calibration issue. .25" balsa is fairly stiff, but it depends on how it is clamped as to what it will do.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.