Second Toolpath is Offset -0.5" along X-Axis

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

A couple of considerations here:

• cutting a slot as narrow as the endmill results in near constant 100% tooling engagement — best practice is to add geometry and cut as a pocket down to tab depth at least:
• leaving a roughing clearance and taking a finishing pass will help with final dimensions

Adding geometry to cut as a pocket with a finishing pass

One technique which is often suggested to avoid slotting is to add geometry around a part which one wishes to cut out and cut as a pocket down to tab depth — here’s one technique for that. In this case, the project is a bevel gauge which will be cut out of 0.0625" (~1.5mm) thick aluminum: [bevelgauge] Due to the narrowness of the angles, an 0.03125" endmill has to be used, so after importing and scaling the file (we will be cutting out one which is 3") we select the perimeter and offset it tw…

• if you haven’t calibrated for belt stretch, doing so will help with the evenness of parts:

https://docs.carbide3d.com/shapeoko-faq/how-to-calibrate-the-machine-for-belt-stretch/