3D Carve Question

[Ken Sully]

Say you are in the middle of a 3D cut and you decide to stop the cut. I needed to check my VR settings which were ok. Now I restart the cut at the beginning.
Is there away to start the cut say half way through? Or just wait for it to catch up

[steve_g]

Ken…
If you noted the line# where you stopped, you can use the file/goto line# command… Be careful though because it will go there from where ever you are, cutting through anything in its path. I note X,Y the position, go there and then run the routine…

SG

[srwtlc]

Hey Ken,

If you're just stopping to check/adjust VR settings and not to quit and restart later, just hit the spacebar and instead of quit, use insert command and then VR. Change the desired settings, enter, and then resume. It will ask to start the spindle again and then continue where it left off at. There may be a pause at the material surface while it loads the next block of code, so don't be alarmed. You could run an air cut with a 3D file and try it a few times so you know how it works.

[Ken Sully]

Steve/Scott thanks for the reply. Second question is if you set your 3D carve depth to shallow, could you use the nudge to lower the Z?
I know this would need to be done very early in the cut or guess I could restart the the final cut and nudge it just after the cut starts.

[scottp55]

Ken, Pausing as soon as the program started has caused problems for myself and others. Pausing during a vertical plunge can also cause funky things to happen. If you are going to nudge from the beginning of the program what i've started doing is moving spindle well away from work piece. Then start and after it's on it's way to home to start the cut-spacebar-nudge-resume . It gives you a couple of extra seconds in case it goes funky. DON'T go crazy with the nudging! Much better to go back to program-change depth-recalculate- resave toolpath. Had problems with multiple nudgings and now change toolpath after each nudge and no problems since.

[steve_g]

Ken…
I personally don’t use “nudge” as very early in my ShopBot life, I experienced bad things using it… I never tried it again.

SG

[myxpykalix]

In a few instances when i was carving something like a 3d face and for some reason it is not deep enough and the nose is flat (uncut)
I have just stopped it,
gone back to 0,0,
moved my Z to 0,
then gone down .1
reZero'ed my Z
started over

that worked for me, in those instances:)

You may need to move your bit off the material THEN take your Z to 0
then follow the rest of instructions

[Ken Sully]

Jack,
I tried a couple of things including moving the Z .1 and also setting the zero .2 below the top of the wood. Did not seem to have an effect. When you don't have Aspire and can only import the image after setup in PW3D the tool paths come in with the image. I tried to change the cut depth and could not. I am on the verge of purchasing Aspire and wondering if you can go back and change the cut depth with Aspire just in case if I set it to shallow again.
And the good news this board has 2 sides..... so flip it over and carve the back side with the proper depth. Looks great!
Do any of you have a rule of thumb that says 3D work should be cut at ----- depth. I played with the image in PW3D and unless you make a large change its hard to tell what the final results will be.

[cowboy1296]

I do something close to what Jack does. Make sure you are z zeroed and I move to home, assuming home for the z is 1 inch. I then click on the VA command. In the box showing the z value I increase that value by a very slight amount. A little goes a long ways here. For example if you wanted to cut .001 deeper, your new z value would be 1.001. When type in the new position on the yellow pad click ok. When you do you will notice the new value show up in the tool position window. The router won't move but the bot thinks its at that level. So when you start cutting it will cut .001 deeper than what your tool path is programed at.



In my material set up I always cut .01 below the surface. Even the squarest of boards wont always be flat, this insures that you are cutting beneath any warpage.

Hope that this made sense.

[myxpykalix]

Ken,
in my explanation it doesn't matter what program you make your file in, or even if everything is all preset.
Make your Z zero setting
then set it as i explained above and it has the same effect as starting your carving .1 below the actual surface because you are lying to the machine.

[Ken Sully]

Jack,
I do understand your procedure to fake out the machine and will use it.
The only other question was would I be able to change the cut depth in my tool path with Aspire? I can't change it with PW3D. Maybe the fake out is the best way...just wondering

[myxpykalix]

That i can't answer, but this is the method i use because i have found that since my spoilboard is so thin and scarred up i don't have a consistent depth all around and when cutting stuff out, i might cut through down at 0,0 but leave a little skin at the other end of the table and have to just readjust the material Z,0 down a hair and rerun the toolpath.

[srwtlc]

Ken,

In PW3D/Cut3D you should be able to set the 'Depth of model below surface' in step 2.

You asked earlier about nudging to lower the Z. Yes, you would need to do it early on, as in right away, or you would see a line or ridge in your finish cut. Best to lower the model in PW3D or fake the machine. You could set the z to one spot and then compare it to several other places to see where the low spot is. Then nudge down as needed.

[cowboy1296]

I had this problem about a year ago. I was doing a 3-d cut. Half way into the cut I decided to pause the cutting while I ran errands. When I returned I hit the resume. The x and y location were perfect. But I did notice that after cutting for a while that there was a ridge, meaning my z value had changed. I started the tool path over and perhaps lowered my z a tiny bit to remove the ridge. Question is how can I pause and resume without the z location changing?

[tlempicke]

If you are going to be doing a series of this tye of thing just go in and tell the software that your Z zero plate is .010 thicker than it really is.

[srwtlc]

Rick,

It sounds more like the material dimensions may have changed due stress relief/expansion contraction from the material that was removed before the pause.

[cowboy1296]

I never thought about that, but as quick as this wood moves I bet you are absolutely right. I am still working with cherry and black walnut. I might just give up cherry, black walnut just turns out so pretty

[srwtlc]

Very nice Rick! Really like that 'Game' one! Care to divulge where the fighting elk came from? It not, that's ok. ;)

[cowboy1296]

As soon as it goes through you have an email, so let me know if you get it.