I’ve a dozen or so inlays under my belt using CC Pro and have been very successful with them all. Only Issues I had were from tear out on some finer details. So I made an end grain board for the base and end grain board for the plug. Everything carved great, the end grain is a game changer.
Here’s the issue: When I made the tool path for the plug I used “inlay mode” and set a glue gap of 0.05", as I always have. Unfortunately on this project that omitted some finer details and I didn’t realize it. Needless to say, plug didn’t fit.
Here’s my question: What if I use “inlay mode” with glue gap at 0.0"? Or what if I use “inlay mode” with 0.0" glue gap, but set the Z zero to 0.05" above the actual stock surface?
Files are attached if anyone wants to take a looksy.
You’re not setting the “glue gap” when using the inlay mode, you’re setting the “Top Gap” or “Saw Gap”. The glue gap is the difference between the “Plug Depth” on the male, and the “Max Depth” on the female.
When you say, “plud didn’t fit”, do you mean the top gap ended up zero and the plug went all the way in & still wasn’t tight? Or that the glue gap ended up zero & stopped the plug from fully seating in the pocket?
I said “glue gap”, I meant “bottom gap”. That’s how it’s named in CC Pro. To expand more, I have two images attached, base and plug. You can see in the plug that some details were not cut.
You have an older version of CC. The old “Bottom Gap” is at the bottom of the male part when it’s being cut. When you flip it over to insert it in the female pocket, it becomes the Top or Saw gap.
So you have “Bottom Gap” and “Max Depth”. The difference is the plug depth.
And the difference between the plug depth & the female pocket max depth is the glue gap.
If you use the oldl method without the Inlay Mode and set Start: 0.200 and Max:0.250, you get this, which I think is correct. But it will ignore your depth per pass since you’re starting only 0.050 above the bottom of the cut.
So, if I understand you correctly, you are suggesting I disable “inlay mode” and cut the whole job at full depth of 0.25" (start depth of 0.20", max of 0.25"). Obviously I’d have to reduce feed rate significantly. I have no real idea of what the machine is capable of. I don’t want to overload it. Maybe I’m over thinking it. I run my trim router by hand pretty aggressively with no issue, but it’s in my hand and I can feel if its getting bogged down.
Any reason i can’t enable “inlay mode” but set the “bottom gap” to 0.0"? I don’t need a saw gap as I use the CNC to remove the plug.
@Tod1d I really appreciate you taking the time to help.
@WillAdams Been meaning to upgrayedd to V8. If I down load V8 will it be a different .exe (I refuse to call them “apps”, we ain’t talkn’ chicken poppers at Chilis) on my PC? or will it replace V7?
Not at all. The Inlay mode was added so it would honor the depth per pass & you wouldn’t have to do that. I would recommend, like Will, that you upgrade to the new application.
I was just pointing out what appeared to be a bug. And since it’s in an older version, it won’t get fixed there.
V8 will go in it’s own CarbideCreateV8 folder. I’m running 768, 778, and 805. That’s how I discovered the issue.
Thanks again Tod! I’ll download the new executable file and see what that changes. I really appreciate y’all taking the time to help me out. BEST. FORUM. EVER!
