Hi My carve time is absolutely ridiculous. I have a simple pocket sign to carve. The carves are going from a short carve all the way to the other end and doing a short carve there and then back to the beginning. This happens back and forth over and over again. Then to top it off, it wants to do a final smoothing cycle even though there is going to be more taken off. A piece that should have taken 2 hours is now going on 5 1/2 hrs and still much more to go. Am I missing something? Feeling very frustrated. Thank You!
We aren't mind readers so some information would allow us to help help you. What machine? What CAD/CAM SW. What bits? What are your tool paths, DOC and stepover? What material? Post the source file and I'm sure someone will take a look.
Machine is an openbuilds lead 1510. The bit I am using is an 1/8" endmil bit. Toolpath is a pocket. Just lettering. I use the openbuilds software. G code and control. My step over rates are 40%. I am just doing a test run on a scrap, so it is particle board. My main concern is why does it have to go to one end and back to the other end and back and forth. It would save so much time just caving out a section at a time. And yes, I am aware of the bit heating up. Any advice?
What is your feed rate (Fxxxx in the GCode)? I would use F-Engrave to do lettering but each to his own. I agree that multiple hours for a few letters is too long.
I like Fengrave as well, but I just recently picked up Vcarve desktop from the OpenBuilds Part Store. If you do use Fengrave, the default speed is 120mm/min. Which is 20 times too slow for wood. You will have a super long cut. Bump it up to 2500mm/minute. F-Engrave
my feed rate is 1000/300. using a spindle. spindle speed is set at 1695. I could probably go up more but if I go to high my machine starts to skip.
You should optimise how you create toolpaths: 1) dont just "select all" and go for it 2) Group your operations logically, for example, do all the pockets first (in one operation) 2.1) Note "merge geometry" treats multiple pockets as one, so only select if thats the intention. If those are two seperate pockets, and you select Merge, then it will do 1st z pass on one, move to the other, do first z pass there, come back to first pocket and do second z pass there, etc etc) 2.2) In some cases, file dependant, you can also create seperate operations for each pocket to restrict it to staying in that one spot 3) Selecting what to add to each toolpath allows the machine to work on just that. So be selective and setup your operations in ways thay you want it to work at.
