Depth of Carving

[applik]

How deep can you effectively carve a 2 1/2D relief into wood with a shopbot? Does it take special bits, etc? Need some info. How does it carve - side to side like raster or up and down? I've never seen one work, so I have no clue. Will the router handle this or should it be a spindle?

[mikejohn]

Shari
You can cut as deep as the length of the bit, which can be as much as 50mm (2") or more in special cases, but not in a single pass in wood.
How many passes depends on a lot of things, and a spindle will do it in fewer passes, I think. I run a router and, provided I don't cut too deep with each pass I frequently cut to 40mm (1 1/2").
Special bits? Not necessarily, simple ball bits, v bits or straight bits are used.
It carves however you tell it to!
Raster, up and down, spiral,
It's the software, the CAD and then the toolpathing CAM, and your choices, that tell the Shopbot how to move.
Gerald pointed out to me that my Shopbots first birthday is this Friday. In that one year I have done many things with it that I hadn't a clue how to do it, one year ago. When advice was needed, this Forum always answered. Many times they held my hand as I walked through what seemed complicated at the time, but is now second nature.
It's not for me to advise you whether to take the Shopbot route or not, all I know is it worked out better for me than I ever dreamed of.
And my rocking horses are a meter tall, and lots of that is done on the Shopbot (but they are all hand finished).
Keep asking, we will keep answering.

(Also we need more females to balance out Gerald)


................Mike

[zeykr]

Shari, I'm sure some others will jump in with more detailed info but I'll try to answer some of your questions. The std shopbot has 6 inches of z clearance which means you can effectively carve 3" deep as you'd need a 3 inch tool to do so. Neither a spindle or router can really carve 3" in one shot into hardwood (foam is a different story) as the tooling would break. You can step it down to 3" in mutiple passes.

As far as special bits - it all depends on exactly what you are doing. Ball mills for 3d, endmills for 2d, vbit for vcarving etc. The length of cut of you tool is only one factor on how deep you can cut in a particular material. In foam for example, you can get ball nose mills with about an 1.5" of depth of cut and can farily aggressivley cut that deep - try it in wood at same rate and you'll snap the bit.

As far as which way it carves: when you say up and down I'm assuming you mean in the Y direction and not Z. As far as x and y the tool moves however it was programmed - it can move in any direction when cutting and things like the direction of the grain of the wood, type of material determine what is best. For example when cutting out a shape you could move the tool clockwise or CCW (climb vs convetional milling) - each is better for different types of materials.

Pocketing (or area clear it's sometimes called) can be done in a 'raster' mode as you mention moving back and forth either along x or y axis or it can be done in 'offset; mode where it follows the shape of what it's carving.

I see you are in Arizona -- there is a camp in Pheonix on May 6th - would be a really good place to meet people and see a machine in action. You can learn A LOT at these camps!

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/11096/11253.html?1144777480

[zeykr]

I see mike beat me to the enter key!

[applik]

Thanks Guys,
I can't wait to get started. I am definitely going to the Phoenix Camp.
You are a terrific bunch,
Shari