Just got the 30x30 Longmill squared up, and was trying a cut out the starter ‘longmill’ project. I zeroed the z axis where the bit was touching the wood before starting, however I noticed the the cut was super shallow. So as an idea I sunk the bit into the work surface while the router was running, once I did this the depth of cut was good however it also cross cut all the letters… So a couple questions…
Did I zet the z ‘home’ right?
How do you get more depth in the cut from the starter project?
Does the chip size on this cut look too small?
@majerus1223 I just double checked. The “longmill project” is just a gcode file. The description says that it is a “very shallow” cut so I think everything was correct on your first cut. You can set z axis zero by slowly lowering the bit until it pinches a piece of paper between the bit and the work surface. I think you basically did this, but the paper gives a bit more accuracy. Personally, I use the probe block most of the time.
So there is something called “safe height”, or something similar, that you can set in your design software (like Vcarve or Carbide Create). This specifies the height that the bit should be raised to for safe travels between cuts. When you lowered the bit further into the work piece to get a deeper cut you lowered it deeper that the safe height so when the bit was raised to travel between cuts it never cleared the surface of the work piece.
If you had the original design file you could load it back into the design software and adjust depth of cut and create a new tool path/gcode file. You could edit the gcode file, but it would be pretty difficult. You’d have to be pretty desperate.
@majerus1223 James: @Megistus (Wayne) and @paullarson (Paul) told you anything that I could, so I will simply welcome you to the group. As you’ve already seen, there are great users here that will freely pass along their knowledge. Please post pics of your projects as you progress.
