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I am trying a very basic carve… A simple circle. 1 11" circle in the center of a 24"x24"x1/2" piece of plywood.
When I started the first cut I used the “rough” setting, but it gave me a message saying there’s nothing to carve with the current settings. The current settings were the default in easel.
I updated the drivers, same issue. I tried the “detailed” carve with the same exact settings and bit size, .25… It started the carve but plunged too deep causing the router to burn the wood and cut crooked. I figured since it was Home Depot plywood and knowing it isn’t completely flat I adjusted the settings to not cut as deep and move as fast… It managed to plunge even deeper.
Everything looks ok, it homes normally and all of that, but I don’t understand the message about nothing to carve or why it’s suddenly acting all funky. I’ve used this project before with no problems.
David, typically the “nothing to carve” warning is when the bit you have selected is too large to carve any of your project. As Chris says, if you can share the project we can see what settings you’re using and get you going.
Not sure about the “Nothing to Carve”; MechanicalGoose is right about that one, but it didn’t pop up for me. The Depth per Pass though…, see first image, seems just a wee bit too much for my liking…
Basically, if your material is 0.5" thick and you tell EASEL to do a Depth per Pass of 20" then EASEL will try to make the cut in one swipe. Check out the second image below of the simulated roughing tool path.
The finishing tool path is the third image and looks to be three passes.
I think you are missing some decimal places in your Custom settings…?
Last time I check 0.028 was over 7 times smaller than your Custom setting of 0.2 for the Finishing Pass and 714 smaller than your Custom setting of 20 for the Roughing Pass.
The Plunge Rate is smaller yes which will cause the bit to plunge into the material at the slower rate, but the Depth per Pass is the problem here it seems.
To be honest I don’t do a lot of carving and right now I only have the 2 bits that came with my machine. Other than the obvious problem above I do believe the root of the whole thing is a dull bit. So on the plus side, now I have an excuse to buy new tools…
I switched it out to an 1/8" bit and it worked like a champ. Luckily, the successful carve was just outside the messed up bit removing it completely.
Easel does not provide recommended cut settings for projects.
Easel contains some default cut settings for their line of bits combined with specific material types. However even these should be validated and maintained by the cnc operator and not relied upon.
The best resource for guidance on cut settings is likely the facebook group of the brand/model of cnc that you are using. With a much larger, more active community than this forum, you’ll surely get plenty of good advice. You’d want to provide as much information as possible about the carve, like material, bit size and type, cnc model, etc.
Cheers
