If one of my bits break half-way through a project, am I able to begin where I left off? I tried to once and it made me begin from the beginning which was pointless because the previous bit had carved most of it out already…
About the only thing you can do is white out or cover up the part that was carved and let it start from there.
If you have a way to set your zero correctly (e.g. Triquetra from @CharleyThomas ) you could edit your gcode in a way, that you skip the already cut parts. But having the correct zero is absolutely necessary if you want a quality carve in my opinion.
1 Like
I have been successful in doing this for one of my customers. The key is knowing exactly what line number you are on with your gcode file when you encounter a problem and stop the carve and being able to re establish your X Y Z zero perfectly. If you do, then you can go into the gcode file, find the line number where it stopped. Then move up about 50 lines to insure that your restart location will be before the location you ended the carve. Once you have that info, you will delete almost all of the movement commands prior to that point. It is important that you leave in the first few lines which set your carving parameters. Better to leave more than you need that take out too much. Confirm that the first line of code that will be the restart position is a absolute position (G90 …) and not a relative position (G91…). When you start the carving if you have done it right, your bit will go straight to the new start position which should be before you ended the carve and then continue as normal.
The XY zero won’t change if you don’t move your workpiece.
Like others have said, you can “hand edit” the gcode. Easel generated gcode is pretty easy because it’s just a bunch of G1s, but if you broght gcode generated from another CAM tool, you may have to be more cautious. I always recommend starting from a retraction (Z up) line that occurs prior to your last cut.
Also a good idea to preview the code…I like this previewer for quick checks.
But your “zero” might change when you change your bit because your old bit is broken (at least if I’m not missing something). Of course not your machine zero, but the end of your bit, because your new bit might be a different length.
1 Like
You’re correct. I should’ve specified XY zero (corrected above). One would need to probe for Z or reset it manually after a bit change. The Triquetra’s main thing is as a 3-axis probe (I know it can do single axis as well). I use several methods for probing, but my go-to for just Z-probing is simple aluminum foil.
1 Like