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Hello, I’m wondering about a process to eliminate these lines that show each pass of this 1 inch thick job.
Is there a process where I could make these 6 passes just a tiny bit oversized, and then follow that with one final pass at full depth taking off that tiny bit to get rid of the lines and get to my final size?
I have a CNC compression bit, but to my mind, the only part of the bit that get utilized is the very tip on each pass, seems the compression portion of the bit is not used.
This is 1 inch walnut on an XCarve Pro.
Thanks for any help.
J-
I get that a lot and just scrape and sand, but I’ve often wondered about taking one pass with a long bit to clean it up. I have 3 different cnc routers and they all do that. I think it’s flex to some degree, as the worst culprit. I’d try to do all the cuts a hair oversize and then one final cut with a longer bit to clean up. I haven’t done it yet because it’s just more work…LOL.
I wonder if it would be as simple as expanding the size of the overall shape by 1 mm in height and 1 mm in width, then cutting with several passes, and then setting it back to the original size and making a final full depth pass.
I could see where that might work with a circle or a symmetrical shape, but not sure how it would react with complex shapes.
Have two files one 1% larger than the other and run that one first with the increment z passes and then a second one to your original scale with just one full length pass?
Still thinking about this and had this idea.
Say I’m carving with a 1/4 inch bit, if I tell the software that I’m using a .26 inch bit rather than a .25 bit, and then run the job with the quarter inch bit. This would leave 1/100 extra around the entire shape correct?
Then I could set the bit size back to .25 and run a final full depth cut.
Would that work??
It would be worth a try on scrap. Maybe make a simple square and try it out. I don’t know if you can input a dimension for a bit, as I never had that need, but if you can than I think that should work. Maybe you could also do the cut in metric and swap the bit for Imperial. 6mm vs 1/4 inch.
Worked great! I ran the first cut with a 1/4 inch bit but set Easel at .28.
That left just a bit extra.
Then ran a full depth pass with easel set back to .25 and it cleaned it right up.
Thanks for brainstorming w/me.