Woodworker that’s new to CNC here. I’m working on some mitered boxes and thought I could save myself some time by having my Nomad 3 cut the rabbets for the bottom of the boxes while I work on the sides.
But for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get Carbide Create to simply rout the outermost quarter-inch of a piece of wood to a depth of 0.25". It feels like it should be dead simple, but my inability to tackle this is driving me nuts.
I’m pretty sure that my CAD/DXF/STP/STL (and whatever other file types I converted this dang thing into) is fine, so I’m not sure what’s up.
Set your stock to the size of the bottom. I’ll assume 4"x4" here, and that the bottom is already cut to size (i.e., that you do NOT need the CNC to cut the bottom out from a larger piece of stock.
Create a rectangle to define the inner edge of the rabbet. In this case, the rectangle is 3.5"x3.5", centered on the stock.
Create a rectangle to define the OUTER edge of what you want to cut. You want to cut slightly past the edge of the stock, so that the corners clear properly. It’s also best to make the distance between the inner and out edges slightly more than the width of the endmill. In this case, I used a rectangle 4.1"x4.1", centered on the stock.
Select both rectangles, and create a Pocket operation. Start depth 0, finish depth .25.
To avoid chipping in the corners, I would use an oversized rectangle for each edge and cut the end grain edges first. (I would also use a downcut mill)
