Hey guys and gals! I set up a 2 stage cut in easel to make a Key West Boats logo today. It was 28" x 13" so my rough cut bit was a 1/4" down cut and my detail was a 1/16" down cut. The generated preview looked perfect. When the rough pass finished, at first glance, it looked good. When the detail pass finished I noticed the problem. The rough cut pass had taken too much out of areas where it should have been detail cuts. Also, the detail pass left entire areas uncut. My first assumption was that I had sized the bits wrong in easel but after looking everything was correct. Any ideas on the root issue? Bad path generation? A fluke? Never had it happen. Long post but thanks for reading.
Was the overcut/undercut on the same axis but opposite ends? It sounds like you may have had some skipped steps, accidentally moved the router during a bit change or somehow didn’t start the second cut from the exact zero location used for the first cut.
How did you locate the machine for your second cut relative to how it was done with the first?
I did another cut later the same day and heard the machine skipping steps on the Y twice and the X once… So I’m going to have to sort that out. Also, thinking about it now, when I changed to the detail bit I did manually zero the machine. Zeroing on a 1/4" bit and then again on a 1/16" would create an offset wouldn’t it. Should have returned to previous home…
Yes very likely would not be in the same spot with how you describe that. When you change your bit, you shouldn’t need to read To the x and y axis, just need to do the z. If there were no unintended movements or skipped steps, it should hold x/y zero through your but changes.
Yes, when doing tool change you only need to take Z into account (reset Z). The center of a 1/2" = the center of a 1/32" end mill 