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-techniquesFor 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
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