oh now you have gone and done it raines!!
lol
that is sweet… tiny but sweet lol
Ha tiny lol. 4’ x 4’ is plenty big for what I cut. I’ll go to an automatic tool changer before I’ll be too concerned about size, but I never work with MDF and plywoods only hardwood panels I have glued up specific for my projects.
As for speeds I think it’s 18,000 and no extra movement just plunge, go forward for the slot and then come right out. I don’t even turn on the dust collector since it’s such a small cut.
so using that method have you found a way to tile that hand written gcode for say 8 keyholes over a 8ft span? more or less 12" apart
I guess it would go something like this if I had to guess
x0y0z-.375
x.5y0
x0y0
z.5
x0y12
z-.375
x.5y12
x0y12
z.5
etc
etc
well @##$$%$^&^#%^#%#$$%$%#$^@$^$^@#%&$%%@$%$^^%^%$%$%$%$@@#$@#$@#$%&^#$#^#^#^%#@@@$%
idk why i keep breaking the old carbide tipped bits then
maybe cause they where grizzly idk lol
I haven’t tried, but for me I just do 1 at a time…I’ve made signs with 2 on them, but I just do 1, move to the next and resend the file.
ahh i see okay thanks
850.001.11 Yeah, I certainly can’t say much for Grizzly bits.
Would you mind sharing the code, I could have sworn it was posted previously but my searches are not returning anything… Thanks in advance
Here is the thread, but I will post my code tomorrow evening…too late to go out to the shop 
Thanks!
JosephCompton,
Where is the keyhole tool in Vcarve?
Or is it not in the desktop version?
It’s actually a Gadget, free downloadable tools within VCarve. There is a Gadget drop down right on the tool bar to get you going.
I really don’t know what to say about the trouble people are having with breaking bits. It’s blowing my mind, because unless the bit is a toy it should easily be able to handle a keyhole. The only time I have ever broken bits was when doing full depth carves in 1" hardwoods.
Maybe it’s in the code, but I can’t imagine how. In fact, before I got my CMT I used an old, chipped, and extremely dull Bosch bit. The only problem was it burned a little, but it certainly didn’t break.
Or maybe it’s a machine thing - I don’t know.
to be honest man I am not sure either
like I said I have broken at least 8 of them all after 5-7 .75" slots
I have used settings from and almost everywhere in between
8-50ipm and rpms from 12000 to 24000 and no matter what I do they are breaking
and I even set-up air cooling
I am working in red oak
the only conclusion I can come to at this point is the rigidity of the machine
yeah thats something I have not tried thus far
I am just worried about the time it will take to do that if say I am making slot board for pop displays
I might have to do cam for pecking and then roughing with a tool change and see which one takes longer
I was wondering at what point I would have to hand write gcode for the machine because even Fusion 360 does not have the capability to peck horizontally within 1 tool path
maybe mastercam or alphacam does
so I have some jobs coming up that require t-slots on complex curves what do you think would be a good thing to do with that? I mean I think hand programming gcode might be out of the question on that?
in my experience with the trace tool path in Fusion I have problems when I try and link sketchs lines together lol
it never starts where you want it to once you link them but maybe I am doing it wrong
these are some of the shapes (umm roughly drawn lol )
If all of the curved keyhole slots are the same, I would make a template and use a router to cut them.