I created a stacked text sign. I want to dig it out and have 4 levels.
Bottom (“Pocket bottom” toolpath)
Last name (“Pocket last” toolpath)
First names (“Pocket first” toolpath)
Outside border
I want this so that I can fill it with epoxy when I am done and cover the FIRST names.
But when I do the last toolpath, it is not all cut. There are some high points (same as border height).
What am I doing wrong here? I assume it is the “Pocket first” toolpath. Stacked last name first name epoxy.c2d (392 KB)
File is attached.
I believe that what you are seeing are artifacts which will not be an issue when you actually cut — if they are, just offset when surfacing things off, and add a final path which does the entire area.
It looks like you did everything correct creating the stack, but your 1/8" tooling is too large to fit between some areas resulting in the artifacts. Just to test this out I doubled the scale (X&Y) and switched to a 1/16" endmill and the preview looks good. Even at double size with half the diameter endmill there is still a small section in the crook of the I that will need manual clean up. It would take forever but with rest machining or some creative offsets and pocketing operations you could use multiple tools to get is machined in a more reasonable timeframe. You could also consider advanced v carving to get to the rest machining easily just use a very acute V bit to not change the look too much.
The Advanced V-carve option with a 30 degree V bit for comparison.
three tool paths just the outside boarder to the tops of the first letters, the second to the tops of the last letters and the final to finished depth. Each carving starts at the bottom of the previous layer. Stacked last name first name epoxy.c2d (288 KB)
