Estlcam calculates the max depth depending on the diameter (10mm wide for instance) and angle of the bit. It then automatcally goes as deep as needed (or does two passes next to each other if max depth is reached). You only need to set a depth if you want to limit it to, say, 5mm. If you do not want to make a toolchange, you have to set the stepover to 2% to have a somewhat even surface on the bottom.
The Z per pass does matter. If you put 10mm, it will do the 10mm in one go. That is definitely too much. Set it to 3 or 4mm first and see how that goes. It will then cut deeper with every pass until it hits the max or specified depth.
I understand depth per pass i was meaning that it didnt matter what i set my depth per pass to as long as it goes to its max depth the depth per pass wouldnt effect the outcome of the carve if at the end the max depth of the bit was reached.
Can you elbaroate more on the stepover and about the toold change? Do i need to use the stepover on every carve? For example for name carves as pictured above shouod i be using stepover? Lets say with your example im using the 90° vbit and its 10mm wide and i only want the letters themselves 10mm wide. But only want to use the one bit to do the carve, i will then need to use a step over?
Stepover is only needed for clearing (small) pockets, for bigger ones you would do a toolchange. For your engravings above a change is not needed. Stepover says how close the next “line” is to the one before when doing a cleanup job. So for a 10mm endmill a 2% stepover would do the next line 0.2mm after the one before. If you used 50%, it would do the next line 5mm away (which would be stupid because it calculates the stepover based on the diameter of the biggest part of the endmill).
What i want it to do is single passes down the center of the letter as I believe this is what will give it the full most accurate effect of the vbit, however what it keeps doing is making its passes side to side inside the shape of the letters. Red being the bit
So if thats the case and i currently have the vbit at 12mm in the settings, would i just be able to say the bit is bigger than it actually is and get it to work correctly?
So if i have the depth set to 1.5mm and the widest part of the bit doesnt hit until lets say 7mm then that would cause it to do what it is doing as referenced in the picture above?
Yeah. It won’t send the tip of the bit deeper than 1.5mm, so it can’t get any wider at that point. It depends on the bit angle and the bit depth. But usually you want to just let it go as deep as it wants.
There are two depth settings. One is on the tool, which determines how deep per pass. Then one on the toolpath, which is the max depth on the final pass.
Ok, so lets say the widest part of the bit starts at 7mm deep for an example. If i set the max depth to 7mm and the widest part of the bit is 12mm would it then allow it to go in the single passes i am looking for? I also greatly appreciate the help btw.
I am only doing a depth per pass of 0.25mm as idk what the machine can do safely without dulling the bit to much and still giving nice clean results
It will be able to cut paths 12mm wide or smaller at that point.
The preview in the first screen fills the whole area with circles. But the machine preview should show basically one line. So you should be able to tell right away if it is working.
That’s pretty thin. The vbit work I’ve done has been pretty resilient. If it only adds up to 15 mins, just go for it at 0.25mm. It it ends up being over an hour at that depth, I would try pushing it more. 2mm or so seems about right. A test cut on some scrap would give you more confidence.
If you are worried about the bit longevity, deeper is better. If you cut one pass at 2mm it will wear the first 2mm by one pass. If you cut it at 0.25mm, only the tip will get worn and it will be 8x more worn.
You can see that it takes me like, 10 minutes, DOC 3mm per pass. Estlcam is often wrong with carvings, so I guess it could also be 20. You can also see that except for the S, where it makes 2 small lines, it does one line.
Ok how your screenshots look is what I am trying to accomplish however my estlcam doesnt even show the lines in the middle of the letters like that. How do you have the extended bar for the settings? Mine does not have that many options.
You have it set to 3mm depth per pass, so a total of 9mm deep? Or what did you set yoir max depth at?
And with this maybe i have some settings wrong on the arduino/ramps board itself because 3mm set in estlcam is like going through half a 12.7mm board. Any idea where i have to correct that at? If you go back up to the first set of pics i uploaded the very first pic that has GASK on it is like a 30mm thick board and the K was set at 2mm deep and it more than halfway through the board
So i did retry and seems as the real issue is the settings somehwere else. Maybe within the arduino settings. The attached picture is set for 3mm max depth however you can see that 3mm went the entire length of the bit plus some as the bit is 13.9mm and the machine thinks that that is 3mm deep. Anyone know where i need to correct this setting at?
