I want to take a real volleyball and place it on a 7"x7"x1.75" block of walnut where the top has a small 5" round “dish” cnc’d into it so the ball can sit. The pocket should be just about .83" deep, so based on the math I came up with using Claude… I may be worn here. The front I will cut with my tablesaw to be on a ~60-degree angle and place a brass plate that I laser engrave with the details of his retirement and service.
I model the circle and add a round shape using the subtract merge type, but no matter what I do, the opposite of what I want is shown in the preview… What am I doing wrong!?!
Also, maybe it’s just me, but whenever I select “subtract,” it changes to “Min” for merge type.
Would a .81" 1/4" roughing bit pass followed by a 1/16" ball nose with a start depth of .81" and a final of .83" be the right way to carve this? This is my first “3D” carve, and the simulation shows a flat bowl.
Pro tip: use the largest radius ball mill you can to get the detail you need.
A bowl has no detail, so the largest ballmill you have.
Use smaller ballmills to get into details, nooks and crannies the larger mill won’t fit.
The larger ball will allow you to increase feed and stepover to get a better finish in much less time
@WillAdams I feel like a dolt, those 3D toolpaths were right in front of me! Like I said, first 3D carve here, even if it is simple!
@Tod1d Thanks for the advice. Would a 3/4" bowl bit work for the roughing pass to make short order of it? My selection of ball nose bits is limited, but I do have a 1/4" downcut ball nose to do the finish pass with.
Thank you both, I plan on doing a test piece this evening before going live with the walnut block!
Carbide Create does not directly support the typical bowl bit w/ flat-bottomed geometry, so such tooling can’t be used for 3D — the 1/4" ball-nose should be fine, esp. if you use a small value for stepover for the finishing pass.
@Diesel3368 Jason, If the next post had to come from someone who never felt like a dolt when it comes to the learning curve on CNC and CAD software, this would be the end of the thread. You are not alone.
Two days ago, I called support to report that my spindle wasn’t working… Turns out, you have to turn it on to get it work. Who’d have thought that? (True, by the way)
