Anyone have a file (CC or F3d) for surfacing the spoil board on a Pro 5 4x4 they are willing to share?
I’m running into two issues using F3d facing operation:
getting the bit NOT to plunge outside the travel limits. In particular, F3d keeps putting a 10 (or so) mm travel after the lead-in which leads to a negative Y-value for the plunge. My best solution so far is to first run a contour around the edges with a negative “stock to leave” so that the center of the bit runs exactly along the perimeter of the MDF of the hybrid table.
I assume the bitsetter need to be removed during the surfacing operation to avoid the possibility of a collision with the bit. My plan at the moment is to let the bitsetter measure the bit, then pause the machine and unbolt the bitsetter to get it out of the way, then resume. Thoughts?
I would create a sketch in F360 to represent the spoilboard plus the amount of overhang you want to allow for the cutter. Then I would create a tool path using 2d pocket toolpath.
I recently surfaced my 4x4 and used a Pocket tool path with the 1" Whiteside 6210 surfacing bit. I made a 48"x49.5" rectangle and centered it on a 47.5"(X)x49"(Y) stock size – 0.25" on each side.
0.03" DOC, 150 IPM (though you should go slower if you’re taking off more, but 0.03 is basically nothing)
0.5" stepover. I used .1" on my first go and it left some material in the corners where the bit didn’t touch. 0.5" covered it, but it added a lot of time.
where/how did you set the machine x,y zero (0,0)? Did you just jog until it would not go any further in x or y to the lower left? or did you place the center of the bit over the lower left of the lower-left corner of the leftmost MDF slat? or something else?
Did you remove the bitsetter to avoid hitting it? or was this toolpath spot on enough to miss it (looks to me like if I’m off by a few mm and it will get hit).
You said 0.5" stepover in your message. But when I looked at the CC file, it was set to 0.75" stepover. Which is correct?
No, I haven’t tried that yet. Thanks for the idea.
Part of what I’m trying to do is use the Fusion 360 “Facing operation”. I want to use that because I’ve come up with a nifty way to set the x,y,z zero once, then automatically run successive passes, each separated by a “pause-resume” and each a little deeper (e.g., 1mm) without having to re-set any of the zeroes between passes. When the pencil marks are gone at the end of a pass during a “pause”, I kill the sequence.
Though now that you mention it, I suppose this might work with 3d adaptive too. I just thought the 2D f360 facing operation (e.g., zig-zag, parallel lines with climb milling) was well adapted to, well, … facing.
It works great for facing boards that are smaller than the table since the facing direction changes have room to occur outside of the stock. Hence the current problem with trying to do the WHOLE table area when f360 wants to start outside the stock.
Thanks for confirming bitsetter has to (temporarily) go. I couldn’t figure out how it did not, had not seen that mentioned in previous discussions of spoil board resurfacing.
Aaah, now I get the issue. Yeah, seems logical that you would think of facing toolpaths for facing, but I think in this case a 3D adaptive would actually work better; and inward spiral that a 3d adaptive can make avoids the 180-degree turns that your cutter doesn’t have room for to do outside of the material because the edge of the material is the edge of travel for the cutter.
Maybe use however many roughing stepdowns you need to get down to where you need the board to be but leave about 0.15mm of wood to remove on the final pass to minimize the steps you get in the eventual surface finish due to tool deflection.
Was just looking at my so5 last night and thinking about surfacing the wasteboard. Jogged around to the different corners. I think you may need the 1” bit to reach all the way to the end of the slats on the backside of the table.
