Tapered Bullnose

[SteveLester1]

How do I add a tappered bullnose to my toolbox?

Thanks.

[SethCNC]

Easel does not natively support Tapered Ball bits,

However if you want more information on how you could enter it and kinda trick easel, I provided some information about that here:

Adding a Tapered Ball Nose Bit

Thanx Seth, I sort of get what you mean entering it as an endmill using the tip width, but isn’t the tip width the same as the radius? The bit for example is R0.75mm x 3.175mm x 15mm (in inches is R0.029in) I have entered it as a straight cut, just giving the tip size as 0.29, but I also entered it as a V-Bit with a 6.4° angle, which should allow for the taper, shouldn’t it? I suppose all I can do is experiment?

[SteveLester1]

Please let me know how it works out for you. I am considering buying Vcarve Pro because this does seem limiting.

[DougWatkins]

Hi Steve, I haven’t actually used my Tapered Bullnose yet, although I hope to be in the next few days. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I have entered them in easel as per Seth’s instructions, as an endmill (Not V-Bit) and the size as double the radius.
I haven’t really looked at any other programs, but Seth did tell me about one called OpenBuilds, I’ve downloaded it, but not really played with it yet, I can’t find where to enter Bits but I’m sure it’s there somewhere? The one thing I do like about it is that it is a program on my computer, not a webbrowser,

[SethCNC]

Oh the openbuilds (control) one was simply to send the gcode generated in easel or any other design and toolpath generating software, not really a solution to the tapered bit issue

[SteveLester1]

I would be interested. To be honest I just purchased Vcarve pro and man I am glad I did! This coupled with Gsender is killer. Bits not a problem and the control you have is really good. Having to pay for software you have to “cheat” seems counterproductive. A one-time payment of $800 is worth it to me. Also, not only is it excellent for 3d and 2d carvings but it has photo carve. Definitely feels like an upgrade.

Thank you for your reply.

Cheers.

[DougWatkins]

Hi Steve, I used my tapered ball nose bit yesterday, and it worked a treat. I do understand your reasoning for VCarve, I have friends that use that and it is a really great program and I have considered it, but it’s $1300 here in Australia, so I need a bit more work to be able to justify that at the moment. Easel costs me about $300 per year, which is rather expensive, but doable.