Step Over in Easel

Easel
1

AFIK Step Over is the amount of overlap in each pass of the bit. The % is the percent of the diameter of the bit.

I’m pretty sure I’ve played with this before. The less % Step Over, the rougher the finish, but the faster the cutting process. Am I correct?

Tonight I made a very simple Easel project of a large 0.5 inch deep pocket in a rectangle of MDF. I set it up to use a 0.25 inch bit. Since it’s a simple shop jig, I wasn’t too concerned with the bottom finish. The first time on Simulate was 29 minutes with the default 40%. As I decreased the percentage, the time to cut got longer! 5% was something like 3 hours 12 minutes. An increase to 75% changed the time to 16 minutes.

Is my head screwed on correct?

4

Thanks, I needed that :grinning: There are times when I want to sacrifice cut quality for speed.

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5

It’s like mowing a lawn

1 Like
7

I would give a good amount of money for x-mow.

8

Ooooo, you could do your own crop circles in your front yard.

9

It looks like nobody answered the original question.

The step over percentage represents the percentage of the bit diameter that will cut on each pass. Lower percentage means less material will be removed on each pass, hence longer machining times.

There is a balance to achieve, too high a step over will increase jitter, and overheat the bit. Too low of a step over will make the cutting edge burnish the material, also increasing the heat and reducing bit life.

Look at Inventables youtube videos on bits 101 and 201, they do a pretty good job on basic understanding of the various settings.

Hope this helps!