Project

James Booth - May 2013

IMPORTANT: Before outputting any toolpaths you should carefully check all

sizes set in the part and the material setup to make sure they are

appropriate for your actual material and CNC. You should also check and re-

calculate all toolpaths with safe and appropriate settings for your material,

machine and tooling.

Terms of Use: This Project and artwork is provided on the understanding

that it will only be used with Vectri c software programs. You may use the

designs to carve parts for yourself, as gifts or even for sale but the actual

Files and/or Vectors, Components or Toolpaths within them (or any

derivatives) may not be converted to other formats, sold, or shared with

anyone else.

This project is Copyright 2013 - Vectric Ltd.

www.vectric.com

http://www.vectric.com/

Introduction

South Carolina showing how to model and toolpath a 2 - We have

decided to make these files available to customers who use Aspire 4.0 so they c an

modify and cut th eir own versions of this model.

This document is designed as a rough guide to this project and not as a tutorial.

Those planning to cut their own version should review both the 2 -Sided machining

tutorials on the Aspire disk or online as detailed here, to become familiar with the

process used and how it works .

Two Sided Machinin g Tutorial Basics D08

http://support.vectric.com/tut -aspire -2d -25d -techniques

Two Sided Machining Tutorial (3D ) F05

http://support.vectric.com/tut -aspire -3d -techniques

This project consists of two Aspire files, one for cutting the front of the spoon and

one for cutting the back. In this document I will give a brief outline to the files, how

I set up my toolpaths and also the process I used to carve the spoon itself on one of

the CNC -Routers we have in the Vectric Lab.

IMPORTANT: The method used to cut this requires your CNC to have a sacrificial

locate the opposite side of the part. If you do not have a sacrificial table surface you

would need to either clamp down a sacrificial surface you can use or remove the

dowel hole toolpaths from the files and look to create a jig to align your part when

flipped from front to back.

The Aspire Files

The Aspire f iles have a job setup which is

oriented with the long side of the material parallel to the Y axis and with the XY

zero set in the middle of the material. As previously mentioned there are two Aspire

files as described below.

A-Love-Spoon-Front .crv3d

This contains the model, vectors and toolpath for the front side of the spoon. There

are two layers switched off that contain data used to create the model. The current

visible layer has the vectors used for the toolpath boundaries. On the modelling t ab

and in the 3D view you can see the components that represent this side of the

model. An interesting point to note on the file setup is the use of flat planes around

the sides of the weave and the bowl of the spoon to limit the depth of the 3D rough

and

the part in place as each side is machined. Eventually this will be cut -through

leaving tabs around the web securing the final part.

http://support.vectric.com/tut-aspire-2d-25d-techniqueshttp://support.vectric.com/tut-aspire-3d-techniques

For the material setup on this side I u sed the top of the block for Z -zero. There are

four toolpaths for this side of the part. The first three all use a tool,

the last one is setup for a .

IMPORTANT: The first toolpath is set to cut what will be the locating dowel holes.

These are currently defined as and cut using a profile toolpath but the

size of thes e vectors should be edited to suit whatever dowel diameter you have. If

your dowel diameter matches the tool diameter then you would need to change to a

drill ing toolpath to cut these .

The second and third toolpaths rough the part with a combin ation of Z -Level and

Raster rough to optimize speed and how much material is left to finish cut. The first

three toolpaths can be output as a single file as they all use the same tool, just

ensure that they are being cut in the original order when you save them, holes first,

Z-Level rough second and Raster rough last.

B-Love-Spoon-Back.crv3d

This file contains the model, vectors and toolpath for the back side of the spoon. As

with the front there are two layers switched off that contain data used to creat e the

model. The current visible layer has the vectors used to define the toolpath

boundaries. On the modelling tab and in the 3D view you can see the components

for this side of the model.

For the material setup on the back side I used the bottom of the block for Z -zero .

This means both sides of the part are effectively referenced from the same side o f

the material . There are five toolpaths for this side of the part. The first three all use

a tool, the fourth is setup for a er Tapered Ball Nose .

The final one uses a 1/4 for the cut -out.

IMPORTANT: The first toolpath is set to cut what will be the locating dowel holes.

These are currently defined as and cut using a profile toolpath but the

size of thes e vectors should be edited to suit whatever dowel diameter you have. If

your dowel diameter matches the tool diameter then you would need to change to a

drill ing toolpath to cut these . These need to be machined before the material is

placed back on the table and will machine into the machine table (bed) so require

you to have a sacrificial surface on there.

The second and third toolpaths rough the part with a combination of Z -Level and

Raster rough to optimize speed and how much material is left to finish cut. These

can be output in a single file for cutting. The fourth toolpath is the finish pass and

then the final toolpath does the cut -out for the inner and ou ter shapes leaving the

part attached by tabs around the outer edge. If you want to keep the internal cut -

out shapes attached to the stock you can add additional tabs on those areas. It is

also important to note this toolpath is cut with a -0.01 allowance to slightly

undercut the perimeter of the part and in theory leave a cleaner edge profile.

Cutting the Files

oversized from the Aspire file by a few inches in each direction. This meant I could

drill holes near to the corners and use screws to hold the part down without worry

of a co llision.

To start the material was secured onto the table. I loaded the correct sized tool

for the machine in the center of the job as

per the Aspire file.

Having checked that the material was the correct th ickness I set Z -zero off the

top of the block choosing a place near the corner that would not be machined away .

The accurate setting of Z -zero is crucial to the spoon being machined the correct

thickness. If your material is slightly under or over -sized (still within + or - 0.05 )

then you should zero off the table first, then use your machine control to move up

exactly 1inch and re -set that as Z -zero.

The first toolpath file I saved for the front of the spoon contains the dowel holes

followed by the Z -level rough and then the Raster rou

Mill. These images show the toolpaths in progress.

Z Level Roughing Front Side

Raster Roughing Front Side

Dowel Holes, Z -Level Rough and Raster Rough complete Front Side

After the roughing was complete I changed

and reset Z -zero for this tool in the same location as the first. The results of this

toolpath can be seen in this image.

Finish pass complete Front Side

Once the finishing is complete the part was unscrewed an d removed from the

machine. I did not actually have time to cut the back -side on the same day so at th is

point I shut everything down. I f you have time you can just continue with the

machining is no need to

recall exactly the same machine position for XYZ zero when you start the back -side.

A few days later I was ready to cut the back side of the spoon, the first job was to

cut the dowel holes into the machine bed to correctly locate the materi al. I loaded

-Zero off the table of the machine and set XY -zero to be in a

location that would comfortably fit the material size onto the table (remember this

is setup for the center of the material shape). Next I ran the Dowel Hole toolpath to

in

your table surface which are a mirror pattern of the ones cut on the front -side of the

material .

The picture below shows the part after the front side was cut with dowels inserted

and lines added to show which hole each dowel would locate into when placed face

down on the table . The dowels were next located in these holes and the material

screwed down again in each corner to secure i t.

Front -Side showing where dowels will locate on holes cut into machine bed

Now I was able to run the two roughing toolpaths for the back -side which had been

output into a single file. These cut a Z -Level rough first then a Raster rough

followed that , you can see the effect of these in th ese images.

Z-Level Rough in progress Back Side

Raster Rough Complete Back Side