CNC (Lasers, Routers, Etc)

Kais said:

Sketch on the plane under the piece the lettering so you get spacing and centering the way you want it, then extrude the letter up beyond the top surface. Be sure you select join on the palette window instead of new body or you will have problems later on. My rather limited hobbyist perspective of fusion360 is that it rewards doing something the simplest way possible. and trim/bevel/surface the face later.

Click to expand...

I thought I tried that, but it wasn't adapting the text to be extruded a certain amount from wherever that specific vertex intersected the mesh....it was just extruding the entire block of text beyond a single triangle face I picked.

This is as far as I've made it:





I took my mesh (without a base), extruded it down 5mm, then cut out the text all of the way through it, then took a copy of the original mesh and offset the Z by -5mm before merging them back together again and adding a base. Total pain in the ass.

Hey Hekotat - can you help with some advice?

I've done 2x test runs on different 3d topo files. I used a 3d heightmap that I made in global mapper, then loaded in carbide create pro.
1/4in ball end on the 3d (rough)
1/8in ball end on the 3d(finish)

Looks pretty good overall, but the 3d (finish) toolpath still leaves ribs/lines between the toolpath. Do I need to turn the stepover way down to fix that, or use a flat end bit?

I don't know the terminology for most of this stuff yet, so sorry if this is confusing. I'm also wondering if there's better software to create the 3d toolpath?

Hekotat said:

Hard to understand without some kind of image of the result, do you have something you can upload so I can take a look at it?

Click to expand...

my camera on my phone is broken, so I can't take a picture of the result.
I don't care at all about this particular piece, and it's too small to get all the detail in it....I'm just trying to dial in settings before I start a big ass 2ftx2ft piece that's going to take 13 hours.


file:
This is a profile view, if you put your eyeballs right on the piece:


Here's the settings I used for it:

Ahhh, I have a very cutter but haven't used it yet. Thanks! I'll try that

Got another one, Hekotat

If I generate gcode for multiple toolpaths at once, it "knows" what the existing surface is? So, i could do a 3d toolpath of a mountain, let's say Mt St Helen's, then a 3d toolpath for text....and it'll essentially drape the text on the terrain layer, adjusting the Z height as it goes?

Hekotat said:

Now, if you are trying to drape at an angle that might be a different process and I don't know how your software works.

Click to expand...

Yup, drape at an angle is what I'm after. We'll see, I'll try it tomorrow. Just trying to get all this figured out on small pieces before switching to big ones.


I have the 3d finish toolpath running right now on the re-try. Looking really damn good this time. I still only have the 1/8in ballnose on there, but reduced the stepover to 9% of the bit diameter. Looking great so far.

Also, I think my laser might be broken again. Couldn't get it to pew pew this afternoon. Not too happy about that

Yea man, if that laser is busted I think I'm done with it now. At least with the CNC, I can understand what's going on and (I assume) replace components that break.

The laser also doesn't work well for the Resin inlay either. It's too inconsistent in it's ability to dig into the wood.

I need to get my damn phone/camera fixed.

Another quick and dirty graphic, but making progress. I ran this thing today in an 18in X 0.88in round pine tabletop blank from home depot (These things are only $11). It was looking really good, but I ended up punching through the bottom. Just figured out where I was going wrong with the settings.



For posterity (In Carbide create):
Actual Stock height: 0.88in
To leave a 0.3in bottom, set stock height to 0.58in
Zero to top of stock


Model Import:
Set "Height" to 0.45in (greyscale model spans 0.45in, top to bottom/black to white)
"Base Height" to 0.1in (To allow space for blue resin representing ocean)
***Stock Height - (model height + base height) = depth of top of model, from top of stock
***0.58in - (0.45+0.1in) = 0.03in (top of Haleakala, in this case, should be 0.03in below the top of the clear resin I pour. Waaaaay too litle to account for sanding and polishing after, but it's still a tester and I need thicker wood. )


Toolpath (Still dialing these in, but would love some input on the 3D Rough stuff, to speed it up):
3D Rough:
Default settings with a 1/4in ballnose (Trying "Stock to Leave" at 0.03in this time. Default setting of 0.0197 still had visible marks after finishing path on the last test)


3D Finishing toolpath
1/8" ballnose, with stepover set to 8% of tool width (last one was 10% and I couldn't see or feel any ribs between the paths, but I was afraid it would show up when staining)
I was thinking I'd have to get set up with a soda blaster to finish these things off after coming off the machine, but I think I'd rather let it run for 9 GODAMN HOURS than fuck with soda blasting right now.






Text probably isn't ever going to come out the way I want it to if I keep combining it into the height maps, though. Even at high DPIs, it's just going to look shitty with pixel based rasters. So next time, I'm going to see if I can add a 3rd toolpath after the 3d rough and finishing passes to Vcarve the text in.....as long as it will follow the surface like I'm hoping.

Also, can Amod please change the title of this thread to......uh....... "CNC (Lasers, Routers, Etc)"?

Some tests to get topo settings right, and the result of the tool run posted above. Text looks like shit when I include it in the raster height map, so probably won't be doing that again.












Here's what's next. 24in table of Crater Lake, this time with the fine detail as separate vcarve/contour toolpaths. I need thicker stock. I have a model that includes bathymetry that I really wanted to use, but just not enough vertical spread to squeeze it all in there.

I have 1 or 2 more blank tabletops to try out. I'm going to machine all of them, then prep and pour at the same time (because I fucking hate spray gun and resin cleanup)

Crater lake one turned out awesome. Still plenty of opportunity to fuck stuff up when I go to stain, seal, pour resin and finish it....but I'm pumped that I feel like I have the machine more or less figured out already.

I whipped up a design for the dust collection system in about 15 minutes and just finished cutting out about half the parts for that, too. Nailed the whole thing so far. Left a paper-thin base on it and didn't cut into my wasteboard at all.

Oh, and there's a retired logger down the road from me that has his own mill business. I've always wanted to stop by, but did today for the first time. Bullshitted with him for a bit and grabbed some fat slabs from his scrap pile to test out. He's pretty nice and said to swing by and hang out or run stuff through his mill any time I want.

Crater Lake