Hi. Hope you all can help me. Having issues with carving efficiency carving stopping in the middle of even simple shapes. 1. Moving to another line or shape in the middle of a pass just to come back to it 1min later to pick up right where it left off. 2. Making two or three full passes then only finishing the passes on half the line/ shape, then it moves to another place on the cut just to do make one or two full passes and then return to the first incomplete shape and finish it… 3. doing problems 1&2 at the same time … In short for some reason or another it now takes 30-45mins to carve something that use to take 5-10mins Please help thanks…
Unfortunately this is a pitfall of Easel, the software doesn’t make the best decisions for efficiency at all. About a year ago Inventables did one on one video conferences with various users and this was the biggest topic of discussion I had with them.
I like Easel it was easy to learn. I hope they are refining it to be better like they did the new machine.
Steve
Steve Thanks for taking the time… That is that I was afraid of … and i hope so because I just got this cnc 3 weeks ago and when i ordered it six weeks ago they told me nothing new was coming out any time soon from them… But i digress Thanks again for your time Steve.
Dave
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Hey, I am very new to this, and you seem to be a good start for a beginner to inform. About simulation times, I am trying to make a 2 bit project, 6" x 12". Hollowing out this dimension and fine carving two stages ( levels ) up from bottom some text(s), with final stage level with the top of the board… The simulation says 8 hours !!! and based on feed rates, which are 30-40 inches per minute… but if I use calculators for feed rates I could use 100 inches per minute… why are X-carve rates so slow… too conservative or am I missing something. No special bits, just other calculators on web from bit manufacturers are saying 100 inches or more per minute on hardwood… what am I missing… can’t wait 8 hours for one project this small or is X-carve really a hobbyist machine ( $2000,00 + to just tinker only)
Partly, easel defaults to slower rates that work with a very high probability of success. And secondly the x-carve isn’t a super rigid machine, so you can’t drive it as hard as a larger more rigid machine. Especially with the 6mm belts you aren’t going to get a huge amount of power transmitted to the motion system. I find I will try the defaults and then once the job starts I will up the federate if I hear chatter then back off a bunch. Also easel loves retraction, like watching it go into a ramp around a profile and for some reason it retracts at the overlap point, instead of just ramping down continuously. In fusion at least you can tweak retraction moves. And easel really retracts, like not a mm but like multiple cm up, which is all wasted time.
Share your file and we will look at it and give you recommendations on feeds and speeds. Some time just changing depths with the v bit detail pass can reduce it. Like Henry said you can back it down if you start out high.