"Denali", and questions about the time involved cutting big stock

[AK_Eric]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone:

I’ve learned a 5% (.0125") stepover with a .25" ballend is needed to remove sanding. I got pretty pics and stuff here to back it up :

Visual comparison of ballnose stepover values

I’m still pretty new to the whole CNC thing, am a visual learner: Did a series of cuts to show how steopver values effect finish quality using a 1/4" ballnose. Thought others may find this of use as well. Blog full of a bunch of closeup pics, but here’s the overview: [image]

So I think I need to stick with that.

@anon68752607 : I’ve done pieces in the past that were done in parts, my goal here is to try to do ‘one big piece’. Thanks for the idea though. I think I’ll definitely go the ‘increase speed’ route.

@AaronMatthews : I like where you’re headed, what do you use to generate the 3 pass operation? I currently only have access to MeshCAM (I’m on the Mac), and it only supports rough\final.

@RobertGoodwin : The whole process is actually super easy: Go to Terrain2STL : Download the map you’re after. Load that into your cam (I use MeshCAM) to generate the toolpath, aaaand, cut. I can dive deeper into the specifics of any of that, just let me know.