I’ve recently got my 5 running and I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the zeroing phase and am wondering if a BitZero would be my solution.
I make a lot of repetitive items but with various sizes and have made all of my files in Create with a stock thickness of 3/4". When the workpiece comes out of the drum sander, it may be anywhere between 3/4 and 7/8. I have a full thickness contour tool path with tabs as the main cutout shape and a hardware mounting pocket in the center that needs to be 1/16" deep.
I understand that the BitZero would accurately determine the thickness and corner of the workpiece, but would it also accurately cut the 1/16 pocket and then cut the outer edge to stock bottom, even if the Create file imported says the thickness is different?
No, if you want to both work on the top face, and cut through accurately, then you need to update the thickness of the material in the Setup tab.
You can use the ‘t’ value in your toolpaths so you don’t have to change each one by hand to match the new thickness. You don’t need that for the pocket (it’s always the same depth), but the depth of the contour cut can use the special value ‘t’ to mean “the thickness of the stock”.
Ok, so I’m understanding that as I’ll need to use the calipers to measure thickness and input that as the stock thickness in the setup page in Create with every new piece. Then for the tool path I can just put “t” or click the stock bottom check box in the toolpath side of it. Then load it into Motion.
I’m working on creating a better work flow and automating a lot of my repeatable items. Even if I need to take it to the router table to get the last 1/8" off with the flush trim that’s alright. Just doing the hardware placement pocket and the main cutout has saved me half an hour per item.
It’s a Jet 16-32, so there’s no detents and I don’t have a digital thickness gauge on it. Exact precision thickness isn’t necessary on these, just a minimum of 3/4, no thicker than 7/8". Fine tuning to get it to exactly 0.75000 would just take too long with calipers. Sometimes I make one a week, sometimes more, but they’re all done individually.
This does not remember that it’s stock bottom. It only gets the stock thickness & enters it in the field.
If you change the thickness it won’t update. Only the “t” option will do that.
I like to think of the BitZero, or any method of setting your zeros just tells your machine where the surfaces are. It doesn’t know how long, wide, or thick it is. Your program has all that information in it. So your program has to share the same XYZ locations, then the set-up and toolpaths just tell the machine where to go from there. The zeros just help the program and the machine start on the same page.
If you use the BitZero to find the top of the material that is all it does. When the machine homes an internal set of coordinates is used by the system. When you set Z zero that is offset from the internal coordinates and that becomes the place where the machine will think the top of the material is.
Carbide Create calculates the tool paths based on where you set the Z zero, on top, and uses the thickness of the material to determine how many passes it will take to get to a depth you set in the tool path. If your material is not the thickness you told CC then everything is off. Either your contour will not cut through or it will cut your spoilboard and likely remove tabs if you are over cutting.
There is no automatic setting of depth on a Shapeoko. The BitZero is not measuring your material it is only finding a coordinate in the Z axis and setting that as the top of the material. Then CC says your material is .75" and determines how many passes it will take to get to the bottom. Varying thickness of material does not work for projects that will be cut all the way through.
If you were just vcarving on material and not cutting through then the material could be 2.0" thick but you told CC it was .5" thick as long as the vcarve did not cut more than 2.0" deep (unlikely) you would be ok. But if you did a vcarve and then a contour to cut out the part then that would be a big issue because CC thought your material was 2.0" thick and would try to cut down 2.0" on .5" material. At some point you would cut through your spoilboard or the router would bog down and stop cutting and maybe start a fire.
So material thickness is very important if you are going to make a through cut. It is simple enough to measure the material as you are mounting the project. Then go into CC and change the thickness and save the file and then run that new file. The file name can stay the same but the contents would be changed and the calculations that CC would make would be changed.