Re Z 'ing in small area?

[myxpykalix]

I have a carving that for the writing on the "banner" (below the blocks) needs to be
Re Z'ed to that height (its about 1/16th or more below surface) however my Z plate is too big. Is there a trick to getting an accurate Z height in a small area?

Since the lettering on the banner is a seperate file one thing i thought of was to Z it to the face of the plaque but just give it a deeper depth of cut. But not wanting to mess it up I need to figure out the different heights and add that to the depth of cut right?

8380

[erik_f]

You could just manually lower the z until you are touching the work piece and then zero out z. In the past I have used a piece of paper in between the bit and the work...this gives me a little bit of a buffer so I can spin the bit to see how tight I am without having to actually touch the wood. You still have to be careful though.

[knight_toolworks]

I made a little plate by cutting the end off my long one and bending one end. but you could also measure it with a digital caliper and manually set it. measure the thickness of a strip of wood lay it over the piece measure it and subtract.

[gundog]

I would think you could use a small piece of material measured with a mic for thickness. Put your bit in the collet hand tight just enough so with small pressure it will push up in the collet but enough so it doesn't fall out. Run the Z down until it touches the piece of material tighten the collet and deduct the measured thickness of the material you used.
Mike

[myxpykalix]

How I wound up doing it. I laid the Z plate across the outer edge of carving. Then took my digital caliper and measured down to the surface of the banner which was .197. I then deducted the thickness of the Z plate of .121 leaving .076. I added that to the toolpath depth and recut it and it worked fine.
Thanks for the suggestions.

[gerald_martin]

Hello Jack:

Are you creating a toolpath in Cut3d or Vector Art 3D? (or the SB branded vectric software) You can import the toolpath into VcarvePro/Partworks software and position the grayscale preview where you want it on your workpiece.

Then run the simulation. After preview simulation is run, move your mouse cursor over the banner. Check the x,y,z, coordinates at the bottom of the screen.

It will show you the z-depth of the surface of your banner.

Next create your text and position it where you want it on the banner. Then when you make the text toolpath, set the start depth field at whatever the surface of the 3D relief is. You can then simulate the v-carve path and check the preview for accuracy.

With this method you not only get an accurate preview, you can also simply zero your v-bit to the surface of the material.

Does that make sense?

Gerald

[jamesgilliam]

Jack, If you are using 3D Machinist the solution is simple. With the file open you can move your curser over the preview and in the lower right corner of the screen it will show you where you are on the piece, X,Y and Z as the depth of the cut. I have used this before to lay text into a carving and it is very accurate

[oscarg1971]

Gerald's got it right. Put you mouse on the banner of the finish preview toolpath and it'll tell you what your "Z" is. -Oscar