Good evening y’all,
So I am saving up to get my Xcarve and have been practicing using easel. I am leaning on you guys tonight to make sure I am on the right track and not over thinking it. Here is my inspiration:
I got an email from Mo with projects that other people are doing. One of these projects was a honeycomb shaped trivet. So, I thought I would give it a try using the honeycomb app in easel. I also wanted to put a small chamfer on the inside of the “combs”. I made three different “workpieces”, the first will cut out the combs, the second will put a chamfer on the inside and the third will outline the trivet and cut through.
With Easel it does not appear that I have the ability to create separate tool paths, so I figured I had to make a separate workpiece for each pass. Would you kind people mind looking over my workpieces and let me know if I am headed in the right direction or if I am making this harder than I need to?
Honeycomb Trivet
@AndrewHarris I’m off to bed, but you’ll need to share your project to get feedback.
File–>Share–>Share With Link–>Save
Good luck!
lol, I guess I never hit save :). Thanks
The pocketed out hexagon’s at full depth are the same size as the ones for your 60° V-Bit. This will not produce the result that I think you are after where the plunge to full depth starts where the edge of the 60° would stop.
So, starting from the top, I am assuming you want the 60° V-Bit to slope the trivet inward toward the center of the hexagon, and then at the inside edge of your V-Bit cut you want it to plunge to full depth.
Here is an image showing how I think you want the cuts to occur …
![Offset For Honeycomb Image|343x500]
If that is the case then you will want to change the parameters for the full depth hexagons cutting with the 1/8" bit by doing the following (individually):
Prior to starting, in order to help prevent accidental moving of a hexagon, select all of the full depth hexagons and pin them using the Push Pin button. Once you select an individual one, you must then unpin it to make the changes below.
- First you will need to select the center of the hexagon as the point for Easel to reference to.
- Second you need to lock dimensional ratio by pressing the lock button.
- Change the Width from 0.787 to 0.643. The height should automatically change to 0.742 to match the locked in dimensional ratio.
Here is an image …
Repin each hexagon once finished to prevent moving it again accidentally.
This is just a little trigonometry to place the plunge at the correct location where the center of the 60° V-Bit cut will stop at the 0.125" depth. If you cut it out with the hexagons being the same size you will not get what you want; you will end up with just a straight bore since the full depth is the same size as the V-Bit Hexagon.
Each full depth hexagon needs to be smaller by:
x = (2 * (0.125/ tan(60))
Please make you that you understand this prior to placing it into practice. I may have made a mistake somewhere so do the math to make sure it is correct.
{:0)
Brandon Parker
2 Likes
Wow Brandon!! Thank you for the info. I didn’t think about needing to make the hexagons smaller in order to add the chamfer, but that makes since. Now, I made it all the way through high school algebra so I am going to trust your math. Thank you for the help, I will attempt to make some changes 
Drew
No problem …
I have just been out in the workshop watching my X-CARVE mill out a new vise for me today. I have taken a few breaks to go fishing in the pond though…
Enjoy the process! You just have to think through exactly what you want the machine to do and perform a little bit of math sometimes when you run up to one of the limits within Easel. You could switch to a different platform, but technically there should not be too much stuff that you cannot do for 2.5D stuff within Easel itself.
You will have to reply to the post when you get your machine and cut this out…
{:0)
Brandon Parker
You dont have to change the dimensions of the hexagons either for chamfering, simply tell Easel you have a straight bit with a “false” diameterto cause a tool offset from path. Set to “Cut inside”.
2 Likes
This is true, but it depends on how he wants it cut.
I just did it from where he had the V-Bit cutting. Either way works…
The way you describe would have thinned out the area between the hexagons to a smaller dimension than what it looks like he wants them cut to.
{:0)
Brandon Parker
1 Like
