I’m doing a 3D wavy flag. It has multiple pieces of wood that were clamped to the table. I did all the roughing and finish steps except for the steps for the 50 white stars. I then took it off the machine, and stained the different pieces of wood their appropriate color. Then I glued and clamped everything back together.
I’ve put it back on the 5 Pro and I’m disabling the carbide motion steps that I’ve already completed. I’m just trying to do the white stars roughing and finish passes. The machine is trying to cut up at the top surface of the untouched wood (which is already gone). I’m not getting much z-motion trying to follow the wavy flag.
Any clue how to get it to know that the previous steps are completed? I’m considering enabling the two steps, insert the tooling, let it zero the new tool, remove the cutting tool, and letting it do a dry run above the work surface. I could even speed it up to 200% to shorten the monotony.
3D roughing is going to start at the top of stock. How much material has been removed from the blue Union? You could lower the stock thickness to get closer.
Or create a 3D finish path with a larger tool and larger stepover, and run it 0.020" higher for a rough path. Does it really need a rough path for just the stars? How deep are they? Usually the finish path has such a small stepover you can go pretty deep without bogging down.
You are correct about the roughing. I’ll try to do a finish with 1/8". And then go to the 60 degree V-bit. Everything always looks good in “Simulation”. Stay tuned.
I’m starting to think that my glue up is not as perfectly flat on the back as it should be. I glued everything to a 0.200-inch mdf board and compensated for the 0.200-inch elevation change when I reset the zero. The picture is showing the 1/8" finish pass. The V-bit, missed the upper stars also. That is when I shut it down. I’ll noodle it tonight. But I’m afraid, I’m going to have to set up a grid and cut each star individually. Which means 50-seperate zeros and cuts. Probably take 25 hours. Oh, and carbide create pro lets you put in a v-bit and it simulates it pretty well in 3D.
