How to write gcode to surface wasteboard?

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Hoping someone can give me guidance on how to surface my wasteboard safely. In return, I’ll record a tutorial so we can share it with the other noobs like me as they join the forums :smile:

Thanks!

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Rob has mentioned elsewhere, but the easy thing to do is make a MeshCAM job that is the exact size of the wasteboard, Program Zero at a top corner, do a parallel-only finishing with 75% or so stepover, “machine geometry only”, 0 margin, uncheck “Don’t machine top of stock”. When you set down the flat-end cutter on the wasteboard, call it Z .010" or .25mm or how much you want to face the board down. MeshCAM will make a single lawn-mowing pass back and forth across the top of the wasteboard. If you haven’t skimmed enough off, touch off the cutter again and call it Z .010" or whatever again and repeat.

3 Likes
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Thanks Randy. Just to confirm, when I’m setting the zero in carbide motion, I zero x and y but I set the bit on the top of the waste board and set it to .010 or whatever I choose? I’m assuming that the cutting pass will then move the cutter down .010 to get it to true zero?

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Exactly, Darren. (The BBS software won’t allow posts of < 20 characters so this is fillin)

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Awesome - thanks! Excited to give this a try tonight. And I’ll cite you in the tutorial video :smile:

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Thanks, Darren. But cite Rob please. I would have done the lawn-mowing from my 2D CAD macro unless he hadn’t sparked the idea…

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I’ll say “Robandy” helped :slight_smile: haha