Adding Endmills to Library

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

Can someone please help me with adding endmills to the Tool Library? My bf bought some off of Amazon for my Shapeoko. I tried to add them after watching the video but no luck. TIA!

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

In addition to the video I wrote up a bit at:

Adding tools in CC440 and later

This is a bit different — the tools are now stored in CSV files Windows: Help | About | Open Data Directory Mac OS: Carbide Create | About | Open Data Directory to access the carbidecreate/tools directory), and it is first necessary to add a New Library: [image] after clicking on the “New library” button you will get the “Create new library” dialog: [image] make appropriate selections (note that certain endmills only appear in certain materials — at this time, MDF has the most complete l…

Note that certain tool geometries (bowl-bit, tapered ball) are not supported by current versions, so one has to enter them as ball-nosed tools.

Others require more drastic work-arounds:

Using unsupported tooling in Carbide Create: Roundover / Cove / Radius bits

These are usually used in routers for decorative effects in wood: https://www.whitesiderouterbits.com/products/1570 but they are potentially useful for joinery: They are also useful for rounding off parts to allow rotary motion as for a hinged lid. Unfortunately, Carbide Create does not support this endmill geometry — but using the new support for previewing a V endmill when used in a No Offset Contour toolpath, it should be possible to preview them w/ confidence by stacking a series o…

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

Thank you for the quick response! This is so far over my head. LOLOL!! See, this is EXACTLY why I just wanted to buy all my endmills from C3D until I figure out what the heck I am doing. Which I am going to do RIGHT NOW. Thanks again - YOU ROCK!

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

These are the endmills I’m using. End Mill Sets, Tungsten Steel CNC Router Burrs End Milling Engraving Bits Drilling Hole Tool for PCB Circuit Board, Plastic, Fiber, Wood, Copper 0.5~3.175mm Set of 12: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

I wanted to use the 2.5. Here are the settings I put:

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

For a bit more on feeds and speeds and tooling see:

Cutters & collets | Shapeoko CNC A to Z

Feeds & speeds | Shapeoko CNC A to Z

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

This is what I’m trying to cut. It’s not even perfect I just want to MAKE SOMETHING. LOLOL
Welcome Friends.c2d (184 KB)

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Is this appearance what you wish to cut?

I believe you want the geometry joined together:

Yes

If you have a BitSetter you’ll get more detail by cutting as a V carving around things first — select the geometry:

Offset to the outside by the diameter of the endmill which you wish to use plus 10%:

If you want to cut a design out, you’ll want to use a square endmill rather than a ball:

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

Thank you @WillAdams!!

That worked! Thank you so much! Now I’m trying another one but the offset won’t cooperate. Thoughts??
Avery Door Corner 2.c2d (104 KB)

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

The problem is the geometry is unjoined/open (indicated by being magenta):

Ungroup and select Open Vectors:

and modify the selection as necessary to allow using Join Vectors:

Yes

and then edit the balance if need be to allow closing

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

and where necessary, Node Edit so as to open up geometry:

repeating this as necessary until one arrives at:

Attached as a v7 file.

Avery Door Corner 2_v7.c2d (88 KB)

[SherryBerry21 (Sherry Nelson)]

Will - you are a God send. Thank you so much! Since you so kindly did this for me, I’m going to run with it and try the next one for myself following your directions. Fingers crossed! Thanks again!

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Glad to be able to help!

Could you let us know the specifics of how these files are being made? Send us the source (DXF?)

There’s some further testing I’d like to do.