Curious on different ways to accomplish this piece

[MichaelLinn]

am making a wedding plate for a friend, and the only way i could come up with to make it using easel, and corel draw was in a 3 op process. My only issue with it is that on op 2 I have to stand over the machine because my carving is on a surface cut out .2 inches deep already so when its done, on its rapid travil to home i pause it and remove the bit so it doesnt scrape across the part. I was curious if someone has found a better way to do this. thank you. (there should be 4 pictures, op1, op2, op3, and the results)

[LucFournier]

I don’t have an X-Carve but you would need to change your safe travel height in Easel but apparently it is hard coded and therefore a limitation in Easel. I found this:

Stopping cycle early results in lots of crashes... height setting?

Need some help please! If I’m cutting 3/8" wood and end the cycle early via the X by the progress bar in Easel, the machine drops to Z0.25 and goes for the program origin, snapping the tool and/or jamming things up (I program with the wasteboard as zero for Z). How can I change this “safety height” when I cut a program short to actually be safe? Something like 2" would be nice. That’s what I set my safety height as but that isn’t what it uses when you stop short of finishing a program. Thanks …

Safe Travel Height and End of Carve NOT to 0,0

That move is not added to your generated toolpaths, it is a default Easel motion after completing your toolpaths. My opinion on this: CAM software and gcode should handle machine’s motion. The controller UI should do only what the user tells it to do. The only time the machine should be automated is when it’s running the code that I told it to. If I break something, I want it to be my fault. I’m usually smarter than my tools.

[MichaelLinn]

I agree, i would love to cam program it and set my own retract height. Regrettably i must wait awhile to purchase one, i am saving up for one, but it will be a bit, so i am just trying to find work arounds for the limitations i have to work within. It appears as if the default hieght for retract to home is not changable from what i read in that discussion? even with cam and g-code programming?

[LucFournier]

Well you can get free/open source CAD/CAM and GCode sender that are GRBL compatible and will let you set the retract height but you will lose the X-Carve/Easel integration. Some will give you 2.5 and 3D, VCarve and other interesting features including setting retract height.

Here is some info to get you started.

https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/CAD
https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/CAM
https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Communication_/_Control

[MichaelLinn]

thank you, i will read these shortly, i appreciate it!

[Traxxtar]

There is a safe height in Easel, it’s not hard-coded. It can be changed in machine settings.

[MichaelLinn]

Thank you very much, i found the setting. This will make this job much easier.

[RandallWhitehead]

also, just as another thought, how about carving the lettering and the bike out before the rest? I just did a five step plaque carve, had me on my toes about it. otherwise great job on the piece.

[PatOrders]

Take a look at estlcam. You can control the heights for each operation.