Do you have to have two separate paths to cut out a milled object?

Projects
1

Ok so I am new to CNC still figuring out everything and working currently with Easel (because I don’t have $2,000 to spend on Aspire) anyhow I am trying to make a basic wood back massager with a curved handle and 4 spokes (two for each side) I want to connect them with a wooden dowel rod through a hole milled through each end and have a round spacer milled to keep the massage spokes from rubbing against the handle. The problem I am finding is I can’t seem to find a simple solution to milling the different depths of the spoke wheel and cutting it out at the same time. I designed it in Illustrator and save it as an svg file.

I know this may sound confusing so let me see if i can explain it with an example.

Say you have a 1/2 thick board and you want to cut a 3" wide 1/4" deep circle with a 2" wide 1/4 deep circle in the center of it. I attached a sample picture of top and side view to kind of show what i mean. So would I have to have two files to complete this? One to mill the basic shape and and another to cut it out? I noticed easel seems to only allow you to choose either fill or outline and didn’t know if it was possible to do both in one file.

sample.jpg864×864 12.2 KB

3

Slightly off topic but I would highly recommend learning and using Fusion 360, it is free for hobbyists

4

Does it look like this, or does it have another hole in the middle?

spacer_scad.png707×456 6.29 KB

6

another hole un the middle

7

off subject can you add or edit tabs manually?

8

Ok, so what’s the inside hole diameter? I’m going to take a guess that it’s less than 1", since you’re running dowel rod through it.

Here’s what that looks like, followed by the code to generate it in http://openscad.net (Note that the dimensions are all in millimeters)

$fn=64;

//BASE
module base() {
cylinder(h=6, r=38);
}

//TOP RING
module top() {
translate([0,0,6]) cylinder(h=6, r=25.4);
}

//HOLE TOOL
module hole() {
cylinder(h=15, r=12.5);
}

//ASSEMBLY
module assembly() {
union() {
base();
top();
}
}

//DRILLED ASSEMBLY
difference() {
assembly();
hole();
}

From there you can export the model as an STL file and generate your CAM paths in Kiri:Moto.

I think you can do it with Easel (see example project here. The trick is to create a second 3" circle that is 1/4" deep and then center a 2" circle on top of it with the cut depth set to Zero. That should create a cutting pass that removes the material on the lip and keeps it in the middle.

9

Is this what you had in mind?