144 hrs 58 min to make a couple simple cuts

1

Hi guys, it seems that all of my problems come after tec support is closed, so I’m wondering if someone here can help.
I’m still clawing my way up this brutal learning curve, so please excuse me if the question is stupid, or the issue is foolish.
with this said, here’s my issue.

I’m building a simple pipe clamp rack for the celling of my shop (I have clamps too long to hang on a wall).

I could make them in less than a half hour with my drill press and bandsaw, but I’m trying to learn this software/machine, so here I am two hours in and frustrated.

I have what I believe will work, and for some reason the layout screen shows it horizontally while the simulate screen shows it vertically.

when I click ‘simulate’, it shows 144 hrs, 58 min to make three -what appear to me to be - simple cuts.

can anyone take a look and tell me where I went off the rails??

(I’ll share the project just as soon as I remember how)

thanks in advance

joe

2

here is the project:

3

Looks like your material thickness isn’t correct. Did you mean 0.75 in?

1 Like
4

AH HA!!!

yup… that was it!!!

idiot rookie mistake…

it now shows a 10 min carve… all good (of course, I just finished making the rack the “good ol’ fashioned way”, but I may continue to tweak this design, and make more in the future.

THANK YOU for lending the 2nd set of eyes!!!

5

Couple of tips, I decided to use MM instead of inches, right from the start with the 1F. it is much easier & only took a week or so to get used to it, Your feed speed could be faster, plunge rate can be the same as feed speed for most carves, I use about 2000 mm/min.Using an 1/8th bit to clear out those pockets takes a long time looks like you could be using a 1/4 inch bit and cutting at 3000 mm/min or more. Check your machine settings, Safety height and clearance height settings can really save time.

6

I would locate the part shown on the right and put it in the middle and above the other two. If you have a quarter in diameter straight bit, I’d use that and change the depth of cut to more like. .0625". That should improve things. You’ll have to click “manual” instead of automatic.

7

Thank you Anthony,

yes, many changes that I can/could make. This was just step one where I got stuck, and as Andrew caught, the problem was the lack of decimal - and yes, adopting a mm mindset can help me prevent that in the future. So thanks for that, I’ll give it some serious thought - now to channel my inner 3-rd grader wherein my teacher assured me that here 50 years later we’d all be using mm anyway {grin}

8

Thank you Martin,

what you see here is a rough - VERY rough - first draft. I’m still learning the line tool. Hate that it only does straight lines (I’m used to [from my previous career] a line tool that can draw in arcs/circles/etc… ) but I’m learning.
As mentioned, I gave up and made the first prototype the old-fashioned way (drill press and bandsaw), from that, I see a lot of wasted space (I can double up and store twice as many clamps), but the overall concept is good.
I’d prefer the arcing turns rather than the angular which you see in the design. Need to learn Easel better to figure the ‘work-arounds’ (seems like everything that i do consists of working around limitations, but much can be chalked up to inexperience… at least I prefer to call it that than stupidity ;-)…)

was originally just trying to make one, and figured that I’d do it in Easel/X-Carve Pro rather than the ‘fast just knock-it-out’ method, as a way of learning. But I like the end result so much that I think that I’ll come back to this at some point and continue to develop this further, its a GREAT way of getting those pipe clamps off of the floor, out of the corner, and being tripped over.

9

thanks everyone. I TRULY appreciate the fact that you are all so patient and helpful with us rookies!!

I’ll try to ‘pay it forward’