So I built the MPCNC, which I thought was an accomplishment for me. I have created so really cool stuff on it. But I cannot for the life of me do an inlay. Something always goes wrong. I choose the wrong bit angle, file output was .nc or another that my board didnt recognize, I forgot to put in a depth on one file…the list is long. I really really want to make so cool cutting boards, that’s one of the main reasons I got to this.
I have struggles with estlcam for inlays, and have not had much success with F-Engrave, recently tried Carbide Create, but the file out put is wrong and the trial of Vetric doesnt let you do your own stuff. I played with F360 forever and could never get an inlay to work, might have been trial version was the problem.
Today I made a very serious and direct attempt to great a inlay of the V1 logo in F-Engrave. I paid particular attention to the bit sizes, made sure to save the files in .gcode everything I could think of that had caused me problems before. I got the files done, loaded up some material, loaded the print and z went up to travel height and never moved again. Did it on all the files. I am tired of failure. Maybe this isnt the thing for me, but I really love making stuff.
I seriously doubt after seeing your build that the issue is some inherent capability thing on your part. You have awesome skills.
Inlays are complicated. I’m not one of the community members doing this, but we do have community members who do- and they are able to do amazing work. I’ve held inlays in my hands at RMRRF that some attendees simply would not believe had been created on “That toy, printed CNC thingy” (No offense meant to Ryan, these are seriously capable CNC machines- it’s a perception thing out in the world.)
When the rest of the members who know how to do this will show up, I’ll bet they start linking you back to their own build threads and how they do it.
We’ve also got some folks doing AMAZING inlays with laser modules on this family of machines.
More to come, and little more for me to offer other than to encourage you.
You can do this, and the community can help.
Hang in there a bit more.
I feel this, I’ve thought similar thoughts, I wonder sometimes if everyone does.
You’re not wasting your time. Ignore that voice in your head telling you that you’re no good, to give up. You aren’t failing, you’re learning. And this stuff isn’t easy. But you got this.
Ok so you keep forgetting a step, different things each time. That happens to me, I bet it happens to everyone here, even the most experienced. Even Ryan I bet.
How about making yourself a set of step by step instuctions, start to finish. If that voice is telling you that you shouldn’t need to do that just give up it’s too hard, ignore it.
Recipes, flowcharts, project plans, checklists, schedules of work, lesson plans, All ways professionals use to make sure complicated things are done in the correct order without missing steps.
If you run though your instructions and make an attempt and forget something (damn, forgot to offset the toolpath)
That goes in the recipe at the appropriate place for the next time. If you want you can post your step by step here and sanity check it. A second pair of eyes might see a step you’ve missed or so,etching else to consider,
Stick with estlcam, that way if you get stuck you can post here and so someone will be able to help. As the horse says “Asking for help isn’t giving up, it’s refusing to give up”
No. You are not wasting your time, you are gaining XP.
Thanks for sharing you experience, the effort and angst that you have pushed through will yield and when it does. You’ll be the knowledge base on it for those of us in the fight. I’m watching this with interest, having been cutting now for 4 years and I’ve never tried this… Yet.
I started with name cutouts, then did pockets and then islands for raised text. Then carves with pocket. I’ve not done a 3d carve yet or an inlay or aluminum milling… Because I’m chicken. Lack confidence. All those things I think are next level CNC skill and they will only come with experience from trying.
Thank you everyone for the encouragement. It’s nice to have peers support you. I spent all day Tuesday trying to get this test piece to work with nothing to show for it. I was really frustrated.
@dpenney I only have the trial version of Vetric, because of my lack of success, I was hesitant to purchase the program.
@Tokoloshe I have seen that video, but got lost in the editing portion. I am looking for a video more detailed in the tool path creation.
When you are doing a shallow inlay, the starting depth of the toolpath is depth of the hole -0.3mm, the cutting depth is what will be left to stick out. That’s all there is to it.
Obviously you have to mirror the drawing first and add a border.
This confuses me, because I go through it step by step in the beginning.
Did I miss it? I’ll look again, tbh I do have a TBI and some memory issues.
@Tokoloshe I understand the need for the 2 mm DOC, but how is that achieved. A 2mm cut with the same tool, then set the depth of cut to appropriate depth, in the example
The overcut is done by setting the starting depth to 1.8mm for instance. Then you have this as overcut. If your hole was 2mm deep, you’d still have 0.2mm for glue.
The “normal” cutting depth just defines how far the inlay will stick out.
The example above has those very large depths because it’s for cutting boards.
@Tokoloshe I made this simple egg shape and gave it a try, 2mm cut on the female piece, 4 mm cut on the male piece. Everything looks ok-ish
There is too much slop I can tell. Got it glued up and will cut it apart tomorrow.
Here are a few screen shots of the tool paths, this is the 1/8 endmill clean up
odd thing, the only way I could get it to cut an island, was to do a “part” path first
so when the vbit went in, it didn’t make contact with the wall until the last pass. If anyone has hints on how to get the island to cut I’d appreciate it, also I could do a finish allowance. The rest seemed to go ok. I can provide more pics or code if anyone is interested.
for the island, you hit the raised areas as a part outline then the hole as the outside border. While that hole is still selected, press the island button and it will cut everything between the outer hole and the inner parts within the confine of that outer hole.
It bascially makes the inlay smaller so it fits the whole.
