Attempting to cut fret slots, tool not touching piece

Hello everyone, trying to get answers here because I’m running out of ideas!

I’m attempting to slit a guitar fretboard. I’ve generated an appropriate tool path, and in simulation all runs well.

The orders of my processes is as follows:

  1. cutting the nut a lot with a 1/8 flat endmill
  2. radius the fretboard with a 1/4 ball endmill
  3. cut radiused fret slots

I’m on step 3. I used a project toolpath and a .023” endmill. When I attempted to run the job in CM, the machine follows the toolpath just fine. Only, it is hovering just above the piece and never actually cuts into it. Even when I adjust the axial offset in F360, it doesn’t touch it. I tested the actual reach of the endmill and it is able to go far enough down on the Z axis, more than deep enough for what I require. I set up all the jobs so that the Z-zero is the stock top

Any ideas on how to fix this?

How are you managing the tool change?

Is the shorter endmill bottoming out your Z-axis?

For the tool change, I simply swap the endmill out and re-zero my Z axis using bitzero. The endmill is not bottoming out, and I tested this by lowering the endmill down to the actual fretboard and touching off. When I put it next to the piece, it appears to be able to go more than deep enough

Sounds like you might have selected the wrong contour to follow.

What does the CAM simulation show?

Care to post the f3d file so we can see the CAM?

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Is there any way to isolate just the one body to a f3d file? This project has an entire guitar and would be a mess to navigate to someone who doesn’t have my scattered brain :relaxed:

A body only exists within the design.

You could make a component from the body (right click, create component from body) and then export the component (right click on the component, export) but I’m not sure that would take the CAM with it, you might have to copy and paste your CAM setup and toolpaths between the fusion files too.

I don’t think I’ve ever made a ‘tidy’ Fusion design and CAM so I wouldn’t worry…

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