Facing without a facepalm?

[Spudz (JB / CaffeineMachine)]

I have a few boards I’d like to face on two sides.
Some of the 4X4 boards are more warped than others so I end up lowering the tool to face them again (using my ‘Facing’ gcode).

Right now I set my Z (bitsetter v2) and run the gcode to face the board.
Then I set my Z again using the bitsetter and run the same code - rinse repeat.
Some boards only need to be faced once. Others need multiple runs.

Is there a better/faster way?

I’d love it if CM had a feature that allowed the user to input a “-.2mm” without having to click-dance through the interface and reset the Z manually.

What are you guys doing?
I thought I would ask before heading over to the ‘Feature Request’ zone.

[fenrus (Arjan van de Ven)]

CM comes close… you can manually edit the Z position, it;s still a few clicks but at least not needing to probe

[RoughDraft40 (Brian Douangratdy)]

I sometimes just generate another cut file from the same design file but edit the start and end depth. I can whip it up before the first operation is done since I can clearly see that it’s not deep enough when cutting.

[LiamN (Liam Newcombe)]

How do you edit the Z position?

So far I’ve just jogged to a safe area, gone to Z+6mm then stepped to Z=0, stepped down however many 0.025 or 0.25 I want to try and hit Zero Z.

Is there a faster cleaner way?

[fenrus (Arjan van de Ven)]

in the screen that also has the “zero all” button…
… you can just type a new value of Z.

[LiamN (Liam Newcombe)]

Ahhhhh…

I had not tried that, thanks, much cleaner.

[Spudz (JB / CaffeineMachine)]

@fenrus

… you can just type a new value of Z

Now there we go…so we can just subtract the depth you want to cut from the z it’s sitting at and re-ren.

Brilliant!
Fenrus FTW!!!

[fenrus (Arjan van de Ven)]

actually you need to add it not subtract it, but yeah same difference

(the field has the value of where in Z the bit is relative to the set zero… by adding to it, you logically move the zero down)

[Spudz (JB / CaffeineMachine)]

Good catch.
Math is so unpredictable

[Spudz (JB / CaffeineMachine)]

What holder (router selection in F360) do you guys use?

[LiamN (Liam Newcombe)]

I added my own custom spindle holder and put the dimensions of the ER20 collet and diameter of the spindle into it, you can take a few measurements off whatever router / spindle you have and do this.

[Spudz (JB / CaffeineMachine)]

Thanks. I’ll roll my own too and snipe your dimensions and check mine also.

One more thing:
I am adding my tools into F360 and when entering in a tapered ball nose it asks for the corner radius?
I asked Precise bits (for this tool) but nothing came to mind for that value.
Update: Precise Bits said It’s half the tips radius. Simple once you know.

Thoughts?

[LiamN (Liam Newcombe)]

If it’s one of these

https://www.precisebits.com/products/carbidebits/taperedcarve250b2f.asp&filter=7

I’d start with 1/2 the tip diameter from the Precise Bits spec. It seems that Fusion is modelling this as a corner radiused (bull nose) tool and that a full ball nose is just a boundary case of that where the radius = 1/2 diameter

Tapered mill tool setup help

Something a bit like this

[Spudz (JB / CaffeineMachine)]

@LiamN

I’d start with 1/2 the tip diameter

You’re on point. I updated my original message with just that.
Thanks for the reply!

jbc