Tabing with PartWizard

[itoolfred]

New shopbotter here. I'm having a problem with tabing. I generate rectangle out of PartWizard then open in SB Control software 3.1.7. Turn tabing on (defaults). This is 1/2" material w/ 1/4" bit. PartWizard takes two passes at the rectangle and on completion of the final pass, the jog home turns into one giant tab. Anyone else having this problem or know what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks,
Fred

[kerrazy]

Fred,
Send me your file and I will have a peak at it for you,
Dale

[itoolfred]

Dale,
I did speak to the good folks at Shopbot and it is a bug in V3 software that they are working on fixing.
Thanks,
Fred

[richards]

Fred,

It's fairly easy to modify the files to manually add tabs. I use WordPad.

For me, the secret is to set the start point at a known location and then put a tab in some of the straight line segments. With the start point at a known location, it's easy to know which area of the part is being represented by each line of code.

All of my work has been in baltic birch which has allowed me to put a minimum number of tabs in each piece, which each tab being about one-inch long and about 1/8-inch thick.

Another advantage of editing the file is that you can modify the routing of difficult portions of the part. For example, using a 3/8-inch cutter to cut through baltic birch plywood in one pass at 1.5 - 1.75 inches per second leaves an edge that still needs light sanding. Sanding the outside profile is quick and efficient, on my large Jet sander, but it is tedious and slow when I have to sand those edges that I can't reach with the big jet sander. The solution was to modify the file to make two passes through those sections of the part that were difficult to sand. By taking two shallow passes and slowing down the feed rate at the same time, those sections have a smooth enough surface so that sanding isn't needed. Why not cut the entire part in two passes at a slower speed to eliminate all sanding? It's simple economics. One pass with small sections getting two passes takes about 1-1/2 minute per part. Two passes at a slower speed takes about 5 minutes per part. Sanding takes about 30 seconds per part. Rental time on the Shopbot is $60 per hour.

When I finally get my own Shopbot, perhaps I'll let the machine do all of the work, but right now, editing the file gives me the speed and accuracy that I need to make a profit.