Cutting wood with OneCNC.

[nagjames]

I'm fairly new to CAD/CAM. I self studied MasterCAM for about 6 months. I have to admit their Inhouse Solution training material is really good. But I just can't afford the price. People write good things about OneCNC and the online demo was impressive too. Advantage package would be a good fit because I'm planning to
design parts in Rhino (I'll also checkout Alibre for parasolid).
I do not own a CNC machine yet I'll pick up a MaxNC desktop mill soon from a friend. My background is computer programming. And I don't know much about machining. The plan is to learn the basics with MaxNC. It's still too early to decide that what material I'll use. Maybe I'll buy a router and make custom 3D signs from wood or from plastic. I want to make parts including design and manufaturing. The question maybe stupid but are there differences between CAM software based the material they cut? does wood require a different toolpath (or way of cutting) than aluminum? I checked on the woodworking forums and no one uses OneCNC. Maybe they use other CAM specifically designed for wood?

[wms]

Actually there a lot of wood guys on the OneCNC forum..Router guys, Guitar makers..(both wood and metal)..Sign guys..(wood and plastic)....Pattermakers..

Sorry not a wood guy myself...maybe some of them will chime in here and let you know how they operate..

[RandMan]

In general the things I've had to accomodate with wood are grain tearout, differences in density/machinability, and dimensional variation of the stock. Grain tearout depends on the wood with highly figured hardwoods like curly hard maple being about the worst, although it can also happen with spruce, and soft maple. Slowing the cut speed, doing roughing cuts and then a finish pass to go to final dimensions, the direction of cutting (convention vs climb milling), and breaking profiles into pieces instead of trying to do it all in one cut are some of the methods I use to combat tearout in addition to keeping bits very sharp. For differences in wood density I just pick workable cut speeds and at the controller I can tweak it slower or faster if needed. Wood has stored energy in its growth rings and when you cut some woods it will immediately change dimensions (warp, curl, twist). Plywoods and sheet goods are much more stable but you can still have chunks fly out of plywood or MDF if you don't do the right things.

Onecnc's cam is very easy to use and has all the features to allow you to deal with wood's challenges but it isn't going to do it all automatically. Their philosophy seems more about giving you a lot of powerful capabilities and letting you figure out how to best use them.

[nagjames]

WMS,RandMan thanks for your response. I really appreciate your feedback. It's difficult to start on my own you guys on the forum make my life little easier.