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I have a question in regards to why Easel makes cutting paths travel in a counter clockwise rotation and if there is a way to change this in the G code. Please see my picture below and allow me to explain.
This is the rotation of the router bit from above (looking down on the CNC and work piece) The rotation is clockwise
When I make any shape in easel that has a “fill” the g code created writes the path in a counter clockwise pattern. The code starts from the center of the fill area and works its way outwards.
Here I show a combination of the two rotations and here is where I am having trouble understanding why easel is programed the way it is. I have always been taught that you want to feed the material AGAINST the rotation of the bit. If you have the direction of travel the way easel currently does it leads to the bit wanting to “outrun” the material feed. On forgiving materials like wood this isn’t an issue but on things like acrylic or aluminum this toolpath leads to chattering and poor edge quality.
Is there a way to force easel to do a “fill” with a clockwise rotation? I feel this would work better for acrylic and aluminum since the material to be cut would be fed AGAINST the rotation of the cutting bit. Any input is appreciated, thank you.
And climb cutting reduces the chance of tear-out.
Your past teachings are true for conventional routing when the operator has to hold the wood or the router.
Even in conventional routing wood workers will choose to climb-cut to prevent tear-out but it must be done with caution as the pulling action can get you in trouble.
As for CNC work I often prefer climb-cutting. The material is clamped securely and the machine can handle the pulling action, providing you you are not cutting too aggressively.
Vectric software offer the user a choice between climb or conventional.
If your bit is running hot you are not within a good cut/feed rate for that bit/material.
If you go to shallow/too fast or too high RPM the chip thickness will be very low => bit tend to rub instead of cut.
I’d like to reverse toolpath direction when clearing out a pocket. It’s now 7 years later, is this an option in Easel yet? The spindle is spinning clockwise and I’d like the cutting direction to be clockwise too. It seems that it would be about 5 minutes of programming to allow a direction checkbox for ‘clear out a pocket’. Perhaps I am overlooking something?
What you’re referring to is “Climb” versus" Conventional" milling directions.
And No, this is not a user selectable setting within Easel.
As it stands, the Inventables flagship model cnc, the X-Carve, uses belts for the X&Y movement and these belts are stressed less with Climb milling. And I presume that this is why Easel uses Climb milling and not Conventional milling…
It’s not quite been 7 years, but rather 6 years and 2 months but whos counting.
And while it can be rather simple to add a button for the user to click, that doesn’t necessarily mean that writing the code to actually create a reversed toolpath would also be just as quick. . . Adding that function could even require a complete re-write of the toolpath algorithm in order to have two different versions to run depending on the check box. . . I’m just saying that software coding is not always as simple as it seems from the outside looking in.
