Do any of you with experience know what can be done about these marks in my cuts? In my mind it seems like a resolution issue with the z axis not going down to the exact specified point the g code is telling it to move to.. Btw I’m using lead15001500 with black box and vectric aspire. The cuts were made with a 1/4 down cut end mill, was an uninterrupted job so no having to re-zero or anything. Any input is much appreciated.
I find it hard to tell exactly from the pictures what the problem is but what comes to mind are two options. 1. Tramming. Did you make sure your spindle is perfect 90°, from all sides, to the cutting surface? 2. Overlap. Did you allow for overlap, as in the bit cuts a little of the last cut.
Yes spindle is trammed and the 1/4 endmill is set to 40% stepover. As for the pictures the issue is on the clearance cuts with the 1/4" down cut endmill there appears to be a silhouette around the vectors that are going to have to be sanded out. Is this typical or is there a remedy for these unwanted lines?
What toolpaths are you running? If something like a roughing, then a profile around your letters, make sure your machining allowance is set to 0 on the roughing pass. If you dont, then there will be more stock left on roughed out part that the profile pass doesnt cut.
I am also confused. You used more than one tool path and more than one endmill? I assume so since you mention both a down-cut and "V carving." Do you have screen shots of your toolpath set-up? I always do a 10% stepover for finishing passes and do not have lines. But I have never used a down cut and I have never V-carved MDF (which seems like it could be compressed with a down-cut).
The toolpath that is having the issue is a 1/4" clearance cut for v carving. I use 4 different toolpaths total for the v-carve, 3 of them being clearance cuts but the toolpath that is creating these lines is the 1/4" clearance cut.
Look at the previous toolpaths and see if you have a machining allowance set on them. If there is than that's your issue. There is more stock being left on those cuts than the clearance for the v-carve. I dont have aspire or I'd look at your file for you. Once we can determine its not a software settings issue, then we can move on to a mechanical issue. However, based on the pictures, it really looks like a machining allowance issue. Can you at least post the gcode files here. We need all of them, not just the one you are having issues with so we can determine if previous toolpaths are leaving stock.
@Todd Hoffert, please do post your Vectric file here as well as the g-code - we can have a look at it in the trial version of Aspire. Alex.
