How many passes?

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Joe Dusel
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How many passes?

Post by Joe Dusel »

How many passes can you setup with the Thermwood routers? Is it just one plus the skin setting? I am wondering about cutting 1 1/2" thick bamboo panels, and I think that cutting them in two passes will probably be problematic. I'm thinking with the 1 1/2" bamboo that it's probably best to take passes of about 3/8" at a time, which would be about 4 passes.

Please excuse my lack of understanding of the machines!

Thanks,

Joe
Mark Taylor
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Mark Taylor »

Joe...as far as I know you can only get two passes if nested in eCabinets.
They may be able to help you with a "cut through" code - I know when you download the rental components they have a variable setting for the number of passes to cut through the material...but it may be written in a different program. When we use artcam we can designate the depth the bit will cut which will determine how many passes it takes for cutting through.
But I don't know how to do it with eCabinets and the rolling nest.

Mark
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Glenn Van Reason »

In this case I would nest and create the cnc file then edit it to cycle the sheet cutting changing the Z value for the different depths. This is a bit daunting if you don't completly know how to edit Gcode.

A get around I have used, but a bit tedious is to run the sheet with a larger spoilboard value, then run it again with decreasing spoilboard values. for example say the material in 20mm thick with a 9mm spoilboard, then runing with a 24mm spoilboard will cut 1/4 into the sheet, then 19mm spoilboard, then 14mm, then 9mm, each pass dropping 1/4 the way throughthe sheet at a time. Do not release the vacumn between passes.
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Mark Taylor
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Mark Taylor »

I guess I shouldn't have said I don't know how to do it with eCabinets and rolling nest...as we have done exactly the same thing Glenn has done with the wasteboard thickness on several occasions.

Mark
Jason Susnjara
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Jason Susnjara »

Hi Joe,

You can change the ZSHIFT value but you can also change the Skin Thickness value. Depending on how small the parts are and that I have never cut bamboo, you should be able to cut 1 1/2" thick bamboo with two passes.
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Joe Dusel
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Joe Dusel »

Thanks all.

So Jason, is there a reason that there is no setting for something like maximum depth per pass? When cutting thick material that is about $400/sheet it would be nice to have a bit more control. The 2" x 30" x 96" thick bamboo is close to $600/sheet. I know that it "should" work to cut it in two passes, but this stuff is hard as heck. Would you also say that you could cut up 1 1/2" thick solid maple countertops in two passes? The bamboo from what I have read is harder than maple. I would rather not end up with $400 to $600 worth of scrap if the two thick passes doesn't work.

Thanks,

Joe
Jason Susnjara
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Jason Susnjara »

Hi Joe,

I didn't know that Bamboo was harder than maple. I asked Larry about multiple passes and he does have that on the list of features to add to Control Nesting. I am unsure when it will be implemented but it is on the list.
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Brian Shannon
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Brian Shannon »

I recently cut some of the 2" Plyboo. I lied about the spoilboard and cut no more than 3/8" in one pass. That multi-lam Plyboo has grain in all directions. I had some tearout when cutting a 45 degree edge. You may want to watch that.
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Joe Dusel »

Thanks for the info Jason.

I just spoke to a friend this morning that has thick bamboo cut on another brand CNC machine. The guy who cuts his parts goes a maximum of 3/8" per pass. My friend is looking to buy his own CNC and this is one of his major considerations since he also processes a lot of bamboo sheets for furniture he makes. I'm trying hard to get him to buy a Thermwood machine. I would think that this would be a highly desirable feature to have not only for thick bamboo, but also for some of the new 3cm thick solid surface materials like EOS.

Will this be something that will be just setup at the machine, or will it also be a setting in the eCabinet Systems software?

Thanks,

Joe
Jason Susnjara
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Jason Susnjara »

Hi Joe,

The setting will allow for all thick material. This will be a setting at the machine.
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Georgi Baltov »

The best way if you go into such complicated cut operations is to use another software. Now I dont want to mention it in the forum but I think that all shops with CNCs will have a program to design cabinets with and then another one to cut one off parts. We use eCabinets and one of those other programs. If eCab comes free a litle investment of about 7000-8000 dollars is not that much. And if you are cutting sheets that are 600 a piece it will pay off in no time. It's good for solids, acrylic, corian you name it. Anyways it's just a suggestion. And I dont think that price is an issue here.
Robert Glenn
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Robert Glenn »

Jason,

I'm looking forward to the multi pass feature. Until then is sounds reasonable to manipulate the Z axis. On a simple program it may be best to just edit the program in the couout section to add multiple passes.

Joe,

For your design where you will be cutting the same thing over and over you can take some extra time up front to manually edit the program then save the specific CNC file. Then instead of running through control nesting each time you can just pull the specific NC file and run it. The additional programming for what you want to do is not a big deal.

RG
Will Williamson
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Will Williamson »

Hey Guys
Count me in for multi pass control nesting I,m setting here with the same type of problem.Try this,hop on one foot ,rub your head and pat your belly and keep one hand on the keyboard.
On a more serious note this very subject 1 1/4" maple just yesterday cost me my brand new 98 dollar router bit . This should of been included a long time ago.
Will

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Mark Taylor
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Mark Taylor »

I too would like the multi-pass option...often I'll use artcam for simple things because I can control the depth of cut on the tool. Most of those things would be simpler done in eCabinets if we had the option of depth of cut per pass.

mark
Will Williamson
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Re: How many passes?

Post by Will Williamson »

Attention Thermwood Management In addition to the multi pass option we also need the ability to do a final cleanup operation in the outline and pocket mode to take awaythe cut lines from the multi pass function. This needs to be part of the DXF translator function in control nesting. This could be accomplished by adding an extention to the layer name.(pocket1 d0p5 z0p5 inc0p25)
I also would like to see this thermwood forum promoted to gain the support and participation of more thermwood owners and operators so that all forms of software and techniques can be discussed and debated .At one time I thought that there was other venues available for this but in reallity when we thermwood and e cab members spoke up we were harshly critized for our opinions as a result i no longer pay much attention to these other venues
Thanks Will
Will

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