Cutting a piece but not totaly

How To
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Hi,
I just bought a second hand Shapeoko 4 XXL. It’s amazing, I hope I’m not going to brake it because I did some slight mistake of calculating the depth etc etc … (I got lost trying to convert Inch and mm …)

I want to says that I’m not native in english and that I miss a lot of the technical vocabulary for this hobby, so it’s hard to find out answer online when I do not know what to call this or that.

I have two questions :

  1. I saw some video of CNC and for exemple if someone cut a circle, there is some “dent” that are not carved so the piece don’t move and is still attach to the piece of wood, people use a pliers to cut it from the board and then sand it. How do you set thoses dents and what is the name of it in english ? I use carbides software, the free version not the pro.

  2. My biggest mistake yesterday was to change the end mill but not redo the “probing” … It went … DEEP, the machine screamed and I got scared it went hard on the motors, I hope shapeoko have some room for error and that part can be change pretty easly if I do that kind of mistakes.
    So my question is, how do I probe in between end mill change, within the same “job” or “project” ?

Thanks in advance.

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  1. These are “tabs”. See: Tabs
  2. The machines are pretty tough — if something goes wrong, let us know at support@carbide3d.com and we’ll work out how to handle this.

For terminology see:

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The BitSetter.

1 Like
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Thank you so much William ! That is exactly what I needed !

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Hey Woodcrafter ! Thank you a lot, I do not have the budget yet to add this tools. I saw some video and consider it for sure ! Right now what I use is : BitZero V2

I was wondering if I can redo the zero-ing during a job ? Do you know if it’s possible ?

Have a nice day !

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Its not possible to change zero in a file — instead, write out separate files for each tool and adjust between each.

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Thank you Will, I will do that then ! Just to clarify, if I get the BitSetter will it be the same issue or it add this possibility (change the zero during the job ) to the program ?

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The BitSetter will allow changing tools during a single file.

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Without t he BitSetter you cannot do Advanced Vcarve. However a user fenrus had a github site that would split an advanced vcarve into two tool paths. You would have to search here on the site and see if the site is still active.

To expand on what @WillAdams said about multiple tool paths. You can create multiple tool paths but you disable all but the first one and save the file with a unique name. Then after cutting that tool path you go back into Carbide Create and disable the first tool path and enable the second tool path and save the file with a unique name. If there are more tool paths then repeat until all are saved in separate tool paths. V7 Carbide Create saves the gcode inside an encrypted .c2d file. Version 6 Carbide Create saves gcode directly. If you want to use v7 Carbide Create you can buy a pro license and save gcode separately. If you have a Shapeoko then Carbide Motion will use v7 Carbide Create files and you just send one file at a time.

So if using V6 or V7 when you run each file you zero X Y and Z to start with. Then if using the same X and Y origin you only have to zero Z for each new tool. The reason is each tool you install will have a different stickout and you have to set Z zero for each new tool/toolpath. The X and Y can stay the same and all 3 X Y and Z zeros are saved even between power cycles of the Shapeoko.

1 Like
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thank you that is usefull ideas !

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