I have just got my Gorilla CNC Junior router and am getting a bit discouraged about how little help there is setting it up and learning to run it. The tech guys just keep telling me to look at the online tutorials, but they only deal with the design in V-Carve or Aspire. I want to know what sorts of router bits to use when carving 3D and how deep to cut and how fast to cut, etc. I think I have it figured to use a flat mill bit for the roughing and a ball nose for the finishing of the 3D patterns but now am trying to find out how fast to move and how deep to do each pass. I imagine the speeds and depths will change for the type of material being cut as well but what to at least get a starting point. Any help would be great.

Thanks,

come on over to the vectric forum there is some good help there

at the bottom of the forums is a section on hardware

jim

http://www.vectric.com/forum/index.php

Feedrates and depth of cut will change with tool size, and material as well. You can use straight bits for roughing, but you might find that they leave too much material if you're finishing with very small tools. It takes a lot of trial and error to really know what your doing. What size bits are you using for roughing and finishing?

For 3/4" MDF I have used a 1/4"end mill bit for roughing and then I tried a 1/4" round nose for a finishing path and then a 1/8" bit for another finishing path. It took a really long time to cut out a small 6x8 3D image doing 3 steps. (3hours) I had my feed rate at 50 too. I think I could speed it up for the finishing pass at least. Am I on the right track as far as what I am doing?

You should be cutting at least 100-150ipm.

what is the stepover for the finishing bit? actually if we could see the screen shot of the tool path it would be helpful, or if you can save and zip the file and we can see what your problem is. the gorrila's are only rated for 200 ipm which should be right for nema 23 motors
jim

The step over for my 1/8" round bit was 0.0125, feed rate was 60 inch/min.

This was my first time cutting a 3D image so I left most of the preset settings alone except for the feed rate I slowed down to 60.

With that stepover you should have no problem cutting at up to 200 ipm.