Large time difference with different end mills

21

For #2, I inverted the image (makes it easier to notice dark gray vs. black than really light gray vs white) and drew an arrow for you :wink:

STRAY PIXEL BE THAR!

For #3, could you save and post your MeshCAM project and your tool-path settings? I can try to re-create the setup to see what it’s doing on my end that way.

For #4, it would be pretty obvious if there was play in the belt due to wiggle in the clamp. No need to dig out the dial indicator, but marking the stock/wasteboard to check for shift would be good.

22

Well, DANG. I never noticed that pixel. Aaand, of course it would never have been an issue before, since every other attempt I had “machine whole stock” selected, and that pixel fell within the 0.25" boundary I set. Just goes to show…

As for the files, when I try to upload anything other than an image filetype, the forum software tells me I’m not allowed to do that. I’ll see if I can post them elsewhere and insert a link.

23

Yes please on the link, Dropbox should work nicely :wink:

24

That’s the NC file. It would appear that MeshCAM won’t let me safe an MCF file based on an imported BMP. Unless I’m missing something…?

25

You have to first save out the BMP as an STL, then load that STL and save that, if you’re so inclined. You can save your tool settings out from the tool wizard.

26

Ah! Okay, that helps. Took a while to upload, those files got big, but here they are:

27

Got 'em, will dig into them when I can later this week :relaxed:

28

Ok, I’ve taken a look, and did some clean-up first.

Here’s the STL reduced in Rhino down to a much more manageable size. It was over 6 million polygons, and over 300MB, so I reduced it down to a ~15MB file. Still pretty smooth:

Then I removed the outer boundary (including that pesky bump) and pulled it back into MeshCAM:

And then I processed it with the following settings, which took about 15 minutes:

And got the following simulation preview:

with an estimated cutting time of ~66 minutes. Let me know if that is helpful for what you’re looking for. I used the parallel passes to avoid doing waterline due to the extreme cut-time estimates that would have yielded.

I’ll try to run it later on in some foam, but if you beat me to it let us know how it turns out :relaxed:

29

Thanks, U9. That’s a lot of effort you went through. Sorry to be so laggard about replying, but work’s been insane and my Nomad’s been deadlined by my need to find the free time to replace the Z-axis screw&motor assembly (maybe today, if I’m lucky).

30

@SkyeFire

Did UnionNines File and setting adjustments get your cut time down to 66 Minutes ?

I have actually been finding that even how extreme the cut times are that MeshCam generates some of my projects are taking Way longer to complete.

I have had my Nomad for a little over a week and just to start out used some simple JPEG files to do some small relief cuts.

I have not had any great success with any of them and have spent hours and hours changing settings to maximize the project.

I run an Industrial sized router for a living so Im no Noob to CNC machining.

Ive found these cut times to just be unbelievable

31

Unfortunately, I’ve been sidelined by my Z axis needing replacement, combined with day-to-day life being bound and determined not to let me get at it. I just got the axes swapped yesterday (need to document that in the appropriate thread), but I still need to finish routing the cables and buttoning everything back up.

Still, though, at this point I’m pretty sure the differences I was seeing was due to my not paying attention to the default feed&speeds that came along with the different cutters. Once I started paying attention to and tuning those, my cut times started resembling reality more closely.