Any Options for carving out a bunch of blank space quickly?

Projects
1

Hi all,

Im working on a project and I’m hoping some of the experts here can help walk me through some of my troubles.

Basically, I am carving out a map of the coast line with on a piece of wood that is about 20"x 24". Approximately 40% of the piece map is water with the rest being the detail of the coast. My problem is, carving out 30% ocean (.5" deep) with a 1/4" bit is going to take about 20 hours, which is way too long. In looking at the cut settings, it looks like the depth per pass is defaulted at 0.028in, which is what’s driving the time up so high. Does anyone have any suggestions on how far I should be able to comfortably be increase this?

Thanks

2

For a 1/4" bit in wood you should easily get half that (1/8") deep per pass, at least try that on a test piece.
Another thing you can play with is step over, Easel default is 40% but for clearing you can try 80%. Perhaps not at the same time with same depth though.

Using a larger bit will also speed things up, for instance a 3/4" wood bit is common/cheap. Try one if you got one, test depth per pass 1/16" and 80% stepover. Feed rate start with 30IPM and see how it goes.

4

If you’re using Vectric Aspire (or, I believe, VCarve) you can add a new bit to the database. Tell it you’re adding a new bit and fill out the details for a 3/4" bit. This worked for me.