IF the “stock to remain” value is in the Rough cut but not the Final cut, how does that help the end result? Why would it be a larger, or small value of some arbitrary amount? I’m probally just not see it, but if the value it “0”, then is that going to go to the bottom of the material? If more that “0” that seems to only make the Finish path cut more material.
Appreciate any thoughts.
Thanks
The ‘Stock to Leave’ value tells CC how far away to keep the bit end/surface from the actual edge of the fnished 3D surface. This allows fast, rough material removal before carving with a detail bit right up to the 3D surface. The material being cut often determines how close you want the roughing cut to get to the finished surface - some woods tear out or break away too easily or change shape after being cut into.
With a ‘Stock to Leave’ value of 0, some of the rough toolpaths will contact the 3D surface to carve & may leave machining marks as the 3D Finish toolpath may not take any more material off at those points.
Thanks for your response.
I changed the stock to remain as suggested by support, to a depth of 0.019". The rough cut did fine, but when I went to the finish path with a 1/32" ball, it was still too much for the bit depth and just started melting the cast acrylic and then total locked up with the acrylic.
I’m now trying to reset everything and do both a 1/4" mill and 1/8" rough cut before I move to the 1/32" finish.
Good thing I’ve got lots of 1" cast acrylic to work with.
OK. Back to the drawing board.
My stock is 1" thick
Z 0 at top of stock
I set the rough cut to cut to with “stock to leave” set at 0.019"
When I run the rough cut, it finishes at 0.695".
THUS, when I go to my 1/32" ball, it sinks into the acrylic about 0.2" or more which is WAY to much to cut at one pass.
I have now spent 3 days working this problem and still can’t get a finished cut.
I’d post the file, but it’s to big. I sent it to customer support and did as they suggest using a rough cut of 1/4" followed by a rough cut of 1/8" and everything stops with the rough cuts at -0.695" again leaving far to much for the 1/32" ball to handle.
Ideas? I’m at a loss and running our of time to get these awards made for the school graduates.
Don’t skip sizes.
You can do a 3D Roughing toolpath w/ a #202 (1/4"), then a 3D Finishing toolpath w/ a #101 (1/8"), then if you wish additional Finishing toolpaths w/ a 1/16" and 1/32 — and consider reducing the stepover for the last.
How does the step over, change the DOC. Regardless of the bit size used, the Finish path dives to deep for the cut right at the start…live about 0.2" below the rough cut. It happens with a 1/8" bit on the Finish path and also a 1/16" bit.
I’m not sure how it plays into the scheme of things, but the MODEL setting are set to have a 1/4" and depth of 0.75" making the over all thickness of the material to be 1". It seems that if that is the case and it should cut to 0.75-0.019=0.731" which is where the rough cut should go down to in depth. However, on three ocassions now, the Z depth for the rough cut stops at 0.695. THEN the Finish cut tries to start at the 0.731 level and that makes it a 0.036 deep cut path for the Finish path and that is just too much for the bit(s) to handle in one pass.
Am I totally out in left field or just plain to slow to understand how it’s working?
Not sure I understand how the stepover causes the DOC, to drop below what it should.
Have you tried carving your project out of MDF or some other cheaper material that cuts easily without gumming up bits?
It sounds like you may have a potential modeling issue - but can’t be of much help on that if you are unable to upload the file.
I guess this is why we don’t see many people trying to cut 3D acrylic.
As I listed above, the numbers, if I understand them (and I probably don’t) seem to not match up with what is happening with the Finish path cut. IF the Finish path were to be taking a couple of passes at the remaining depth, that would make sense, but it seems like the s/w wants to cut the whole remainer in one pass.
That is why it’s best not to skip sizes — probably it would be best here to do the initial 3D Finishing toolpath using the same size tool as is used for the 3D Roughing toolpath — might also want to apply some dish detergent or something to help keep the tool cool and prevent the plastic from sticking and melting.
Be glad to try it. I’ll try anything/everything at this point.
Thanks
Thanks to all that provided suggestion and help. Much appreciated.
Note: during the last lion head and a current one, have started losing connection to cutter. No certain time or event going on, but just lost connection again with, best I can tell, ONLY a BT mouse connected besides the 3XXL.
Will disconnect my BT mouse and start over again and see if it can make it though without stopping.
Random disconnects are usually a sign of static charge build-up - usually caused by dust collection but can also be caused by material being cut. This was especially problematic on the S3’s.
Be sure you have your spindle & dust collection hose grounded to bleed off static charge.
See my other post, but the machine was left on, not running but connected, over night and this morning, it had the lost connectivity message on the screen when I went to the shop. Kind of hard to think it might be static build up if it is not running I would think.
Appreciate the thought though. Thanks
Just another update: Machine left connected and no program loaded last night; this morning, connection lost message again. No idea what is going on.
Please note that we recommend not leaving the machine paused for long periods of time.
Stepper motors work their hardest when holding position and overheating is a potential concern.
Absolutly agree and don’t do that.
Wish that could be part of the problem of disconnects, except that last night and the night before, the machine was not in pause mode nor any program loaded.
Are you saying that it should not even be left turned on at all?
Thanks
Well, got the first rough cut done with the `/4" end mill running for 3.5 hours.
Loaded the second rough cut with the 1/8" end mill and it ran for 1.25 hours out of 3.5 and lost connection to the machine, even though at that point it was only cutting mostly air to get down to the previous rough cut. UGH
Start over again 
It isn’t necessary to have multiple roughing toolpaths for a given area.
Based on what I was indicating at the start of this thread, this is the only way it seems to work for me.
…as long as I can keep from getting the disconnects.
