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Just got the x-carve and seem to be having some issues with importing “Contour paths” g-code from fusion 360. The z-axis is cutting my spoil-board on all “contour paths” except when I tried to run a test…
Below is the g-code from Fusion and an Easel export, they looked the same to me. Countour Easle.nc (85.2 KB) Countour.nc (91.3 KB)
I ran the following test. Had Easel and fusion, cut a 1 in circle w/ tabs at full depth. Easel it did not cut all the way through the material… (unsure about the reason for this but not worried about it) Both fusion runs (one with the added code from easel and one without) cut perfectly through with no spoil board damage. no issue.
I then Ran a the following and had the worst spoil board damage yet!
Another F360 detail worth noting here is Stock offset under your CAM Setup-tab where 1mm is default. If you are unaware of this and Z-zero on the top of the material the carve wil start (and finish) 1mm below your intended target.
Yes. It’s virtually impossible to achieve a perfect wasteboard from the get-go.
If height-critical machining is desired a skim cut need to be done. Simply run a larger bit with shallow passes, with greater stepover over the wasteboard, “skimming” it down to uniform distance relative to Z.
For most through-cut toolpaths, I use my wasteboard as a reference. I almost always use CA glue and tape for workholding, so I would set the surface of my bottom layer of tape as -12.7mm. That ensures my toolpath would only go down to that.
There is something satisfying with cutting through a part and not cutting through the tape. That said, the wasteboard is a consumable. If you want to preserve it, use another on top of it.
Then you say “reference”, are you Z-zero on the wasteboard or are you setting your stock point as the bottom of the stock and adding the thickness of the tape for safety.
I set my wasteboard+tape as Z-12.7
It’s effectively the same as setting my origin at the wasteboard without having to change setups or having issues with depth on operations that reference the top.
I, in many cases, export my full-depth contour operations separately from the other toolpaths so I can do that.
