V carving help please

[tlempicke]

I am V carving a sign and the setup is proving a bit mysterious.

In the screen to generate the tool path one of the first items is Start Depth. When I set this to say .250 it it will cut a very deep letter. If I set it to .075 it cuts a much shallower letter, but the final depth seems to have no relation to the numbers .075.

The tool is a 1.25 inch 90 deg. bit. Is pass depth, under the tool selection screen what I should be looking at?

[waynelocke]

You seem to have the machine zeroing to the table. Check the material setup in the toolpath menus and zero to the top of the material. Or you can use a start depth the height of your material.

[adrianm]

Tom, the start depth is usually used to cut into a part of the job that has already been machined.

If you want to cut VCarve lettering into the top of your material there is no need to specify a start depth.

If you want to limit how far down the cut will go you can specify a flat depth. Otherwise the depth of the cut will depend on how far apart the vectors in your letters are and the angle of the cutter.

[curtiss]

One thing that is confusing with v carving is that you are creating TWO toolpaths.

One to clear out most of the excess area and the second cut with a v bit to finish the raised letter.

If you can send a pm or an e mail I have a small chart that may help.

[gerryv]

Hi Curtis, you may have just opened a floodgate of requests for that chart (chuckle) I might as well get in line early IF you have the time. :) Thanks kindly regardless. - Gerry

[curtiss]

I think I got the PDF file to zip in here....

not to be fussy with the website 19kb size limit....

[tlempicke]

Thank you.

[cowboy1296]

Normally you start your cut at the top of the board. By giving it a lower start depth is like lying to you shopbot and telling it the top of the board is actually .25 below the surface, hence a much bigger letter. I sometimes use this function when cutting with old English. Parts of the graphic do not cut deep enough and this gives me a more desired cut. But i only change the start depth by .01 or .02. a .25 would give me a graphic that i would not want.

also playing with your z value at the bot can achieve the same result without modifying the file but in very small increments.

[GlenP]

Vcarving looks at the vector parameters (width) and tool to generate its depth and you have no control over how deep unless you select the "flat depth" option. If you want to vcarve a letter or border etc to a specific depth you need to use a profile toolpath and then set how deep you want to go.

[joe]

Wow.

Now I'm confused.
Examples seems in order.

Joe Crumley

[adrianm]

http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=43649#p43649