I am hoping for some advice on how to approach machining individual panels for a design that flows across them. The image below shows the design and panel breakup that have. I am starting with all same thickness stock (actually it is a glued-up panel to preserve the grain pattern across the cabinet that I will be splitting as shown.) My machine is not large enough for machining it all at once and then splitting it, and what is shown for the breakup is pretty much maxing out the bed for each piece.
I can’t seem to wrap my head around a setup in Estlcam (v11.245). Trying to mask within Estlcam is seemingly not working. It does not appear to reflect the mask from a DXF properly, and loading each panel separately does not allow for the overall design (i.e. machining depth) from a single starting point. I thought about defining the set up to be based on the bed rather than the top of the stock, but Estclam does not prompt for stock thickness at all. (I do see a material thickness when I choose block machining, but it appears to be for tabs and multi sides machining. I am really just trying to machine the top faces at the correct depths.
You mention estlcam and dxf. But that design looks to me like it should be exported as separate stls and imported into Estlcam that way. Definitely looks like 3D, not 2.5D to me.
Is the long green trim piece also one piece? It looks like an awesome project with quite the pucker factor.
Yes. Definitely STL files. When I embarked on the project I thought I could just bring the individual panels into Estlcam and use the bed as a reference to ensure the proper heights per panel. But I am now thinking Estlcam is not the right tool for this project.
There does not seem to be a way to establish the stock height or a safe plane above the work area, at least not in the Free Machining set up. And it does not appear Estlcam is accounting for STL model height at all. Only the top surface geometry. I can set the clearance plane in Basic Setup to avoid the stock (set to 35mm), but it appears to be relative to machining features, not the bed (zero reference).
In the Block Machining setup there is a material thickness setting, but it assumes 2 sided machining, and the STL geometry is placed midway in the material thickness. It also appears to always want to do a profile cut as well, which I definitely do not want.
I don’t remember v11, but v12 STL Height = Max cut depth (unless you say yes to ‘can I cut deeper?’) and material thickness doesn’t matter (Z0 material top).
…With the whole surface being machined off, some sort of Z0 reference point is needed, e.g. a material height block or tool length sensor that can be used to reset Z0 to material thickness. The panels also need a bit of overlap to prevent raised bits along the seams, e.g. an oversized 0 margin (or masked) 3D panel followed by a 2D perimeter cut.
You need a known z reference : "the spoilboard " just make as many independent files with the z axis referenced to the spoilboard, i do t do as many 3d carves but it should be doable. (Even with bit changes)
It appears that the only way a spoilboard Z0 works is when the Free machining STL Height = material thickness. Using a zero Margin will limit the machined area to the 3D surface.
You have to take the reference to the spoilboard before and measure every tool first. You have to enter z values by hand (you need to take the z axis max value un absolute coordinates) and all tools need to have a collar for the bit setter to work. You wont change z max value (distance from spoilboard to lowest bit point value at max z )
