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I’m completely new to CNC carving. My dad bought an x-carve 1000x1000 mm, and it’s impossible to resist playing around with it, since me and my husband have a little side business in creative woodworking…
I’m really sorry if this question has been asked before (I couldn’t find anything, but I might be lacking the right search terms)
So, I designed a mandala in a Aspire (using it from a friend) and would love to carve this so it gets a 3D V-effect. I’m working on basic 9mm MDF with a painted top layer.
The bit I’m using is a 90 degree V-carve bit, with a 1/8 inch shank and 1/4 inch cutting diameter from inventables.
Once I get to carving, everything goes well, until the toolpath starts cleaning up the points and sides. There seems to be an overlap in this last part of the toolpath that does more damage to the design than it cleans up…
I’ve tried everything I could think of in playing around with the tool settings, but I can’t seem to get it right… Am I missing something? Is there a hardware malfunction that could be causing this type of overlap in the design?
The design is made in Adobe Illustrator, imported into aspire to make the toolpaths and imported into easel as a g-code export. Do you think it might be a toolpath problem? I played around with the toolpath settings (carve speed, plunge speed, spindel speed, even Vbit width…) but without success
Is your bit actually 1/4" (.25) or 6MM. You state it is .25 but have the settings in Aspire at 6mm. I believe if Aspire is setting a toolpath for 6mm and making a deep plunge a 1/4" bit would cause an over cut because of its increased diameter.
That setting isn’t the shank diameter, it’s the max diameter of the cutting edge. In the original post it was stated that the bit has a .125" shank. I’ve used those bits and they were smaller than the advertised 6mm.
Did you re-zero for the finishing pass?
Does the diameter (D) really matter that much? It seems to me if the angle (A) is 90 degrees then the cutter width at a given depth is only dependent on the angle (A). The diameter only tells the code how deep the cutter can go before it runs out of cutting edge.
The difference between a diameter of .25" and .236" would not be significant unless the cutter is being fully inserted so deep that the the top edge of the cutter begins to cut the material.
Cutting too deep and fast can cause the bit to pull or jump around. More likely to happen with an older dull bit. I would check my bit measurements, slow the feed rate and reduce the depth of cut.
I have not tried to solve the trig problem yet. But .125 sounds wrong. If I laid a .125 bit on its side and stood the 90 deg V bit up next to it, the top of the cutter on the V bit would be much higher than the top side of the .125 tool.
