I do a lot of long jobs (longest was 12h so far) in a cold garage and have tried to deal with this issue in a number of ways:
- Make my MPCNC go as fast as I can, with lots of mods. (see my other posts)
- Move the mesh Wifi in our house so it reaches out to the garage and put an extra surplus monitor on the CNC laptop so I can get work done or browse the web while the machine is making sawdust for hours on end.
- Install a videocamera (like a baby monitor) with sound to monitor the CNC on my phone if I have to run to the loo.
- Bring snacks and water out to the garage.
- Install a parking heater and insulate the garage so it is not so damn cold.
- Get a respirator that is comfortable to wear all day (Sundstrom).
- Set the machine’s rapid rate (for when it is moving through air) and acceleration as fast as they can safely go. Any time it is running and not making chips is wasted time, IMHO.
- And as was alluded to by Philipp, I work hard to optimize my toolpaths.
You can get wildly different job times by just making one small change. I use VcarvePro which has a very good estimate of how long a toolpath will take.
For instance, I only use a V-bit to do the edges of a Vcarving job, and use the biggest flat endmill that can pocket all around the Vcarved stuff.
I use 50-80% stepover, and as deep a cut per pass as the machine and bit can handle.
It is worth breaking a few cheap bits on a similar type of scrap wood to find out what your machine’s limits are. I learned this lesson from my Uncle Dick who races rally cars: “If you never skid the wheels, you will never know how fast you can take a turn.”