How to fix anything as Im getting started

Yes, the origin will be where you set it (indicated by the red origin symbol), but the beginning of cutting will be wherever it is relative to that.

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Thanks Will! Ill give it a try tomorrow.

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Hey guys I’m back. How’s your weekend doing? Anyway, after 2 weeks I have the chance to play around my XXL. Can someone please copy the link turorial to do cut out letter in carbide create? Thank you so much.

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I’m not aware of a specific tutorial on cutting out a letter — it should just be a matter of:

If you need help with the above, let us know and we’ll work up a tutorial for you — it may help to review the official tutorials: http://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/#shapeoko-tutorials

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Thanks Will. Ill give it a try.

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Hello guys and gals. Im wondering if there is someone doing acrylic cut outs and use it in signage?

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Hello all. I wanted to cut acrylics for signs. What type of bits i should be using? Thanks a lot!

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I don’t think the type of bit matters as much as proper feeds & speeds.
I use a square endmill (mostly the #201), conservative DOC, but above all keep the RPM low and the feedrate high, to avoid heating of the endmill and get a clean cut.
If the acrylic is melting along the path and the endmill ends up gummy, you are not moving fast enough.
I also like to use a drag bit to engrave a fine 2D pattern on the surface of an acrylic part.
Check out the many threads on this forum on this topic (tip of my hat to @Savant_PCs for cutting such beautiful acrylic PC case parts, by the way)

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Thank you Julien! Really appreciate your inputs.

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If your new to machining acrylic I will tell you what I read in several forums and articles now is this: even some very experienced machinist go into acrylic with the wrong assumptions and have a lot of mistakes because it is so much different, and harder imo, than machining soft metals. The first thing you will want to do is look up some Spiral O Single Flutes from Amana Tools (i can provide links for the ones I use literally every day).

The reason why acrylic can be difficult is due to it compressing before it chips off. Coming to understand that fact will save you a headache when you start to see how to work with it, ESPECIALLY with thread tapping which I made a youtube video on. But if you have any questions feel free to ask as I have been machining acrylic for the better part of a year now and I can save you some headaches I had to go through lol

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Thanks for the shoutout! It means so much to hear comments like that :heart_eyes:

Thank you Stephen. My apology for the late reply in your tip it is very helpful though havent tried it yet. Will please post the link of the bit i am getting? I checked your posts and it was so impressive. My problem is my brain always having memory leak issues. Lol! Wasnt able to play much my machine lately as i was busy doing something else.

The machine includes one #201 1/4" square endmill:

Endmills are consumables — you need multiples of any which you are using, see: http://docs.carbide3d.com/support/#tooling-support

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I don’t know if anybody mentioned this yet, but I just finished building my xxl, a big issue that caused my “bumps” was the belts were too loose.

can i use this?

As a really tiny paperweight maybe.

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How about that one?

I’ve used these, but found them generally not as great as you would think. What are you trying to do? There are many different endmills used for many different things, all depends on what you are trying to do. Metal? Soft metal? Hard metal? Wood? Plastic? Veneers?

https://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Endmills

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Thanks all for replies. Id be using it to Cut out letters on acrylics and mdf. Id also use it on hardwood pockets like boxes.