I am having a problem with carving a simple outline.
When I do the carve with an 1/8" bit, it cuts fine, but I wanted to improve the quality of the side wall. Following a suggestion, I defined a bit with a 0.135" diameter to carve the outline as normal, then a detail bit with 0.125" diameter and a depth of 0.75" for the finish pass, figuring this will shave a little off the outline. But, when I try to run the carve it tells me I cannot do the carve.
Any suggestions? Am I asking the program to do something I cannot do?
Looking at the project, the material height is set at 0.748". You cannot set a depth of cut that is deeper than the material height. Also, even if you set your bits up as you suggest and run the 1/8" bit at 3/4" deep you run the risk of breaking it with that much material remaining due to rigidity/bit deflection. Should you go that route you could get by with setting your first pass bit diameter just a few thousandths over what it actually measures. Yes, you need to measure your bits with calipers because the nominal diameter is almost never the exact measurement of the bit’s actual diameter. For instance, my brand new Whiteside 1/4" bit measures 0.245" and that 0.005" makes a difference if your machine is calibrated well, and it is cutting within its means.
Typically, you can run your carve normally, and then just run the outline carve again at full depth, even with a faster feed-rate, to help clean up the outside edge a bit.
The bit and material also matter as well for surface finish …
All that being said, the issue that your are running into in your file is the fact that Easel always defaults a “Cutout” object to the Detail Bit, so in this case, on your third work-piece, you only see what the Detail bit will be doing. If you want to go through with this just make one cutout on one work-piece with the bit set to just a few thousandths over its actual diameter, and then make a second cutout on another work-piece with the actual bit size; cut the larger one first. Make sure to line them up correctly … 
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Brandon Parker
Thank you Brandon on your insightful suggestions. I had figured for my second pass, that I could do the full depth as the roughing pass would have removed most of the material.
So, how can I set this up to do as you suggest? Can I have the program go from one run to the next run without re-homing and re-zeroing? I am afraid that doing that would shift where I am just enough to not line up.
