When making tool paths always cut the least invasive first. Make contour cuts that will cut out last. You can change the order by going to the tool paths and simply dragging your tool paths to the order you want.
For instance you cut out something that had vcarving and then a contour cut to cut it out. Make sure the vcarve is first on the list and the contour cut last. If you had pockets also cut them before you cut out the contour. There is a lot is a lot of stress on your material during cutting any tool path. However when you cut out a contour with tabs that is all that is holding the center in place. When the contour is cutting until you get down to the tab depth you have a lot of material holding the project in place. Once you get to the tabs and specifically on the last couple of passes there is not a lot holding your project in place. The part of the project that is on the outside of the contour is being held by your clamps but the inner part is only held in place by the tabs.
Sure, dually noted. Sounds like good practice. But not my primary problem right now. Is there no way to delete these hidden toolpaths and redeem this design?
So next I deleted all toolpaths , duplicated the design without toolpath, deleted original design, moved the duplicate back into place, made new toolpaths (and made contour the final step). Saved it all, ran the program and the depth of cut on the first pocket was .200” instead of .075”.
Your retract height is set to .750", is it possible your crashing at the top of Z and losing steps?
Also, your contour toolpath for the cut out operation is going to be hard on that bit as it’s a deep slotting operation. I added an offfset slightly bigger than your tool and made it a pocketing operation most of the way through finishing with a shallow slotting at tab height. Hope this helps leatherman OHT front 4.0.ver2.c2d (76 KB)
Are you certain the file you are running on the machine is the latest version of the file from CC?
Are you transferring files to the machine? Did you “Load New File” and reselect the same file after editing?
Not the version of CC. The version of the file you are cutting.
After editing you need to save the toolpaths, save the file, and reload the file into CM.
Is the bitzero on top of the workpiece or clipped over the edge (the lip of the bitzero is about an eighth isn’t it?)
My understanding is probe XYZ the lips of bitzero off the top pushed up against edge
probing Z only bitzero lips on top of the workpiece
I found my problem. I rapid to my x,y, z+6mm i confirmed by eye the bit was 6mm above my workpiece, but my glasses screwed up my calibrated eye. The z was .125” lower than i thought.
What “K” is doing ( checking rapped x y z+6) is good practice. I like that. I have manually set the zero points and scene I get lost on more than one occasion. Always stand ready with my finger on the power button when it first starts to cut. Carbide motion shows the precut path it might show up here when it’s off.
When it happens, since I just killed the power it goes back to the back right corner and resets the reference point so I just load everything again and reset the Z probe depth in rapid check the XY plus Z that is usually fix my problem
Oh man, you had to ask .
Well, there are 2 programs required on my project. A front and a back with a thickness change.
I machined the front, then changed the z by .125” to machine the back, but I needed to make a change to some width dimensions.
I started over with a new piece, “verified” the Z zero by eye (forgetting it had been changed for the back of the previous piece).
I appreciate the input here as I learned a LOT!
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