Just got my Shapeoko up and running a few days ago and starting to get into trying out the v-bits. On the few things I have done I am not seeing as clean of cuts as I think I should on the v-bits. Endmills seem fine at cutting smoothly, and leveling and calibration seem to be good, so I am thinking that I have something off on the feed and speed I am running the v-bit at. To this point I have been using Easel to export g-code to Carbide Motion using their recommended speeds. I haven’t seen much online about what people are using for settings with the v-bits. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?
Feed Rate: 32 in/min
Plunge Rate: 9 in/min
Depth Per Pass: 0.04
Bit: 0.500" 60 deg v-bit
Material: Oak
Without seeing the Easel project to compare, I’d say the gcode looks fine.
My guess is that your v-bit does not come to a true point. That will cause the carves to be wider than calculated at your desired depth. You’ll have to set your Z0 at an offset above the surface of the wood. The offset depends on the width of the flat spot on your bit. With a 60 degree bit, you should be close by offsetting the slightly less than width of the flat. For exact offset, I whipped up a basic spreadsheet you can enter your values to get an offset.
