I’m new so the possibilities for my mistakes are immense.
I want to engrave this text using a spring loaded diamond drag tool similar to the MC Etcher tool but with a stiffer spring. In my tests using the Shaper Origin I determined that 0.11 depth from top surface gives the best result. The result using the SO is acceptable but I’d prefer to use the Nomad 3 and limit the chances that I make a mistake. The cost of the stock is significant.
The text is not a font. I drew the letters in cad since there was no exact match in any font available (except those included with Gravotech engraving machines).
The letters are not single line. Instead they are outlines that are less than .0001" apart. This works on the Shaper Origin. In Auto the spindle/tool makes laps around the letter. That’s what I want the Nomad to do.
The blue lines are rough previews of where things will cut — but the actual cutting should be better. The red lines are the selected geometry which is pretty much were the actual cut should be.
Thanks Will! Still confused but this looks good enough to try.
One thing I think I might be doing wrong is to set initial cut depth to the same as final depth. It seems like when I do that the Simulation comes out blank.
Yea, having same value for initial and final basically tells CC there is no Z movement. Unless carving inside a pocket, I always have my initial at 0. Becareful setting a large “initial” as your bit will plunge to that depth to start out, and could result in broken bits, dislodged or ruined material, machine damage or worse. Not knowing what learing you’ve done thus far, and not to offend, but I would recommend some of the great videos for using CC that are in both this community and elsewhere on a popular video service. They may utilize older versions, but the basics are the same. Another option is to click on Help/Help from inside CC and view the Carbide3D “Getting Started” series.
In my ignorance I set start depth the same as final depth since it’s a spring loaded diamond and won’t do anything until compressed. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…
I did find something I needed near the end of the first Meyers video, how to delete a Toolpath. He said to right click and my wife clued me in to control click on my Mac. It was frustrating that trying to edit a tool path was just making more of them accumulate.
The second video is a nice walkthrough of Carbide Motion which was also helpful.
I doubt I’ll ever prefer designing in CC instead of the cad I’m familiar with so the CC design tutorials are less interesting until they get to making toolpaths.
Hi Will, I saved the gcode from your file and ran it and the spindle ran full speed.
I don’t know how I could have screwed that up?
On the positive side it didn’t destroy the tool and it proved the geometry is good enough.
I made my own CC file using drastically slower feed rates (based on the best results from my Shaper Origin) and followed the example provided in your file. I set the rpm to one and saved the gcode. That file also spins the spindle full speed so I aborted that one. Would have resulted in a lot friction on the tool end.
What could be the problem? Seems like the crank the spindle code is being inserted when it should not be?
