nesting configuration

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Chris B Campbell
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nesting configuration

Post by Chris B Campbell »

Hey All,
Is it possible to get the smaller parts to the middle of the sheet? It seems when doing many parts (Drawer Boxes) The nest always ends up with the small parts at the outside edge were there is less vacuum and much more prone to moving. Yes we do the double pass.

Thanks,
Chris
Jeremy Schiffer
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Jeremy Schiffer »

Not until we have drag-and-drop nesting.

Only way I can think of is to put a huge number in the "collar" setting to keep ALL parts away from the edge of the sheet. Impractical.
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Neville Bastian
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Neville Bastian »

Jeremy I cant believe what I am hearing. The USA can develop a self propelled grenade that you can make go around corners but Thermwood can't make certain sized parts go away from the outer edge on optimising. Will be great one day to take control over how things are nested as you usually can see how it would work better. One thing I would like is the ability to cut small items first. This is so the operator who edges isnt scratching for things to do on the first few sheets cut then overwhelmed towards the end of the run. I would thought this would be a easy sheet run reversal option.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Regards Neville
Neville Australia
Jeremy Schiffer
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Jeremy Schiffer »

Hey Neville, I hope you're enjoying your upcoming warm weather as much as I'm NOT enjoying seeing ours go...

You're right about the edgebander. In our case, it's usually one person running the CNC and edgebanding the parts as they come off. Towards the end, the machine will be sitting and waiting.

It's not unusual for us to take the last 3-4 sheets of a job and run them first, for a couple reasons: One is for the edgebanding, the other is so the small parts aren't being cut on a wasteboard that is scarred up from the previous 30-40 sheets. As you said, an easy solution would be a "Run nest backwards" option; get the small stuff done first, and the larger parts don't move so easily on a scarred-up wasteboard.

As for the USA and its propensity to spend every nickel in the pursuit of bombing things while our own roads are falling apart, don't even get me started...

Thermwood guys? Could we pretty please get a "run program backwards" checkbox in CN? :mrgreen:
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Zach Froble
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Zach Froble »

I just wanted to add another nesting feature that I would like see. I would like an option to nest cabinet parts in order of cabinet number, so all the parts for a single cabinet can cut, edgebanded and assembled. I know the yield will not be great but it can operations running, which is sometimes more important on rush jobs. I know their is some other software that does this, but I have never seen their exact process.

ZachF
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Neville Bastian
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Neville Bastian »

Hi Everyone, I like Zach's idea for those rush jobs. Could add in maybe instead of one cabinet have option of groups like cabinet 1 to 4 then 5 to 9 etc. As you might get more than one cabinet out of a sheet for example.
The other thing we do manually due to the high cost of waste disposal here and because I am a tight wad is pull out the smaller items like rails,kickers,upper shelves, drawer parts etc and run them from smaller off cuts or reject, damaged or wrongly cut parts. We seem to get better results that way. If you had a catagory that you define small parts so it ticks the boxes automatically but you can still overide that auto selection. This would help me reduce my dumpster fill. Side advantage is you can focus more suction onto a smaller area but using laminate to cut out vac leakage. This helps those really tiny parts.

Yeah Jeremy its looking good out there. Sunshine, green grass and just enough rain showers to keep the farmers happy. My area is a farming district so wheat, barley and sheep are the main income generators. Havent started wearing shorts yet. Thats maybe next month. :lol:
Regards Nev
Neville Australia
Stuart Douglas
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Stuart Douglas »

Ive solved the drawer part problem by running the last sheet first before, not ideal but it does work. Also, there is a nesting option for outline order that will cut parts smallest to largest in the control nesting parameters. That also helps. I still get some pieces kicked from the edges from time to time but if you set your double pass parameters progressively smaller until the problem is mitigated it will eventually get you there. I've gotten our setup pretty close to 0% mis-cut parts, but things near the edge of the sheet inevitably move around, especially if there is a flip op on the other side. Don't forget about tabs, they are annoying but will save the part. Hope this helps.
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Ralph Balanik
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Re: nesting configuration

Post by Ralph Balanik »

Chris,
I am not sure that having all small parts nest in the middle of a sheet is going to solve your issue with small parts moving. If you lose vacuum at the edge of your sheets you may have other issues. Some things that I do to prevent a similar situation are to use a skin pass on smaller parts and leave a bit of waste material between all parts. I also set my machine to cut from smallest to largest to maintain maximum vacuum on the smaller parts while they are released from the sheet. I use a shopbot CNC and I do not have an automatic tool changer so all parts are machined with a .25 compression bit and I use an air drill for my 5mm holes. I have designed my cabinets so that all parts that require two sided machining are made from the same material but I named the material differently. To clarify, Even though I use 5/8 melamiine for all my case and drawer parts, any part that requires a flip operation(some drawer parts and cabinet backs) is made out of the same 5/8 melamine but I call it antique 5/8 melamine. That puts all of those flip op parts on the same few sheets and when I cut them I make sure that the sheets selected are not cupped at all and that the vacuum will pull the entire sheet down without raised corners or edges. I made my plenum out of 3/4 plastic which allowed me to cut more air channels per inch which I believe increases vaccum surface area and eliminates any vaccum leakage between zones or raw edges at least on the plenum. I resurface my spoilboard after every ten sheets or so. I also made my plenum with 9 zones which is maybe overkill but I can hold some pretty small pieces if I have to. Hope this helps until the software evolves. I am a one man shop and high output is not my main goal so I know that some of my suggestions may slow things down and may not be practical in all situations.
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