Extra steps using pocket funtion

[timmyb199]

Hi Guys,
Well its been a long time for me, I am finnaly able to look at my machine again, I built a ice fishing tinga ma jig, well anyway i can,t seem to find a way to make the poket function no return to safe z then go the next dpeth cut the whole depth for the pocket then returning to safe z ect ect ect. if you know what i mean. i would like it to poket and continue going down kinda like a spiral cut downward until the right depth. It's wasting alot of time going from 1/2 inch in material to 1/4 inch above to. is there a way to fix this without editing the g-code by hand?? thanks agin tony mac for helping previously and i hope to post some finished project with the vectric software

tim

[CRFultz]

Hey Tim,

I may not completely understand your question, but, why don't you complete the pocket in one pass?

If I want to cut a pocket thats 1 inch deep with a 1/4 inch end mill, the tool will only cut to the depth of your setting....(mine is set at half the diameter of the tool)...it will make a .125 pass then go to the next depth of .25 and so on till it reaches a total depth of 1 inch.
This is all in one toolpath and is visible by the preview as multiple lines cutting to your max depth.

The tool should cut this in one operation unless you are running multiple toolpaths in the same file, in which, it will return to safe z after each completion and then go to the next gcode file.

Chuck

[Tony Mac]

Hi Tim,

I suspect you need to set the Rapid Clearance Gap - SafeZ - height to be just above the material surface. The Material Setup form is used to specify this height as shown in the attached image.

Chuck's note about the cutting depth per pass is also worth checking. When selecting a cutter from the Tool Database check the Pass Depth setting as this controls the maximum depth of cut allowed for the cutter.

I hope this helps and if you need more assistance please let me know.

Tony

[timmyb199]

well to return here, the safe z is set to .25
this is how it would cut

it will dive .02 into the material then cut one complete pass then lift up to .25 above the material then plunge to .04 into the material and do another pass then pull up to .25 above then plunge to .06 and do another pass . do you kinda know what i mnean now?? i would like it to plunge to .02 cut a pass then without raising plunge .02 deeper and do a pass ect.ect untill the depth is reched i want the do a safe z move.

thanks tim

[CRFultz]

Originally Posted by timmyb199 well to return here, the safe z is set to .25 this is how it would cut it will dive .02 into the material then cut one complete pass then lift up to .25 above the material then plunge to .04 into the material and do another pass then pull up to .25 above then plunge to .06 and do another pass . do you kinda know what i mnean now?? i would like it to plunge to .02 cut a pass then without raising plunge .02 deeper and do a pass ect.ect untill the depth is reched i want the do a safe z move. thanks tim

Tim if you would, send your .crv file to Tony and he'll look at where the problem lies.

Or if you want send it to me.....crfultz at gmail dot com.
Without looking at the toolpath it would be a guess.

We understand what you want, and thats the way my machine cuts...not sure why your's is going to safe z after each pass.

Chuck

[timmyb199]

tony mac can you give me you email again, crfulz tried looking at the file and concurred that it returns to z after every pass. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to take a look and see if i can get it to not return to safe z after every pass.

thanks for all the help from you and crfulz

timmyb

[Tony Mac]

Hi Tim,

When using the offset fill pattern pocketing strategy in VCarve Pro the cutter will effectively spiral from the middle of a pocket region to the outside. The cutter then has to be lifted and moved back to the middle to plunge back to the next z level.

If the cutter simply plunged to the next level at the end of the pocket it would then have to cut in the reverse direction, moving from the outside back towards the middle.

Thinking about it, and even if we have Raster Pocketing - hopefully in V4 - the cutter finishes the first level at the end of the raster pass and has to be lifted and moved back to the start point and plunged to machine the next level.

Does this make sense to you?

Tony

[timmyb199]

yeah it makes sense to me i guess i just thought it would work differently, when i used to cut with sheetcam it would continue to spiral and reverse ect. well maybe in the new realease it may be different. once again great product and maybe i'll try to adjust my speed so it wont waste so much time thanks again

tim

[timmyb199]

why when you cut on the outside or inside of a vector not using the pocketing it continues to spiral downward through to the depth then return to safe z?? just a question thanks tim

[timmyb199]

what if you made it so you can select both the climb and conventional in the cut selection so it would switch back and fourth for evey depth. I am no computer genious so im shure it waould be way harder to do that. just came to me when i was loking at the screen.

[Jason Marsha]

Hello Tony,

Before I had auto pocketing (VCarve) after the first pass on the pocket I would edit the gcode so that z-axis stayed at the pass depth returned to the x-y start position and then plunged the z axis down from there. This saved a lot of time if I had a lot of holes to do.

For example a bolt pattern in 10mm MDF with 32 holes and 4 or 5mm passes.

Jason

[Tony Mac]

Hi Jason,

For simple shapes such as circles and rectangles your approach will work but in general we have to always ensure every pocket shape will be cut correctly.

Imagine a random shape such as a figure 8 or dumbbell where the offsetting splits into multiple sections to the toolpath. You then don't know at what position the toolpath will finish cutting each section and returning it back to the start point (without retracting) might carve through the design.

Real designs / complex shapes often split into multiple regions when pocketing and the software has to ensure the cutter doesn't gouge into the design.

I hope this makes sense?

Tony