As i am sometimes cutting deep pockets in hdu I am struggling with dust extraction. It is annoying when chips fly all over belts on my shapeoko 4 and stick to wheels and belts.
The only solution i could come up is to use separate toolpaths for various depths and adjust sweepy when one toolpath is done. It would be great to see how much time is still left for current toolpath to finish, so i could come back to machine on time and not have a crash with sweepy, which messes up the machine position - and then have a slight missalignment between different depths and sometimes also a bit crash, when depth of cutting heigth of bit is exceeded.
Maybe even an option for machine to pause between toolpaths - that would be the best.
An important feature would also be : time left until next tool change .
Just some toughts on features, that would make my life easier
With models earlier than the 5 you can hit pause in CM and it will stop the spindle and raise, you can then adjust the boot.
If you are using a router instead of a spindle then that will also work but you could create a
Diff toolpath and put a different speed in it. The program will pause asking you to adjust the speed. You could adjust the boot and just keep the speed the same.
Yes that is what i am doing now:) the thing is sometimes it takes 2 hours to make a pocket to 2,5 cm and i do not like starring at the machine for 6 hours for when i would need to adjust the sweepy - i have the spindle and a distancing bracket for shallow passes - smaller than 2,5 cm and then i remove it to do to 4 .
I am in the shop, but when it hits it is too late …
It’s annoying but you could create a different tool with the same specs. Then alternate your toolpaths between the 2 tools. It will stop between each and then remeasure at bitsetter needlessly but would give you an opportunity to catch and adjust.
Maybe do some test cuts that are lengthy and figure out a conversion factor that you can apply. The good news is that it’s never an underestimate of the time so if you are back when that is done you should be good.
