Dovetail Drawers and Skin thickness

Damon Nabors · Post by **Damon Nabors** » Sun, Nov 25 2007, 7:39PM

Ok, tell what the H$%# is going on now. I just got through running my first big job and most everything went alright. I have a few missing parts that for some reason or another vanished. But that is another story.

My question for today or should I say the question of the hour. I just ran a large batch of drawers and there was no skin left after the first outline pass. The larger parts held down ok but the smaller parts moved. The router acted as if there was a skin because it made a second pass around each part.

I have searched and read alot of problems that are going on, but I have not read a cure. My swich is set correctly and the daylight value is correct, spoilboard is good. I am just currious what is happening. I would like to finish this job tonight, but do not want to waist alot of parts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Damon

Todd Miller · Post by **Todd Miller** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 8:52AM

Damon,
You may want to check you double pass size. This is located on the control, within the Control nesting \"settings\". You can make the \"Double Pass Size\" dimension bigger to remove the double pass from smaller parts. But it seems like you are having hold down issues on the smaller pieces.

What is your \"Skin Thickness\" size?
What is your \"Double Pass Size\"?
What version of Control nesting are you running?

All of this information can be found by selecting F10>F11>F2. This will take you into Control Nesting. The Version number will be in the upper left-hand corner of the CN screen. Skin thickness and Double pass size will be within the settings tab of the Control nesting screen.

Damon Nabors · Post by **Damon Nabors** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 9:20AM

Todd,

skin thickness =.003
dbl pass =250\"~2
version cn =5.34

I agree with the hold down issue statement, but when the part is nested in the middle of a sheet surrounded by other parts, how do you address this issue?

Maybe a dumb question, but is there another key you hit along with the F? key? I can hit the F10 key all day long and nothing will happen.

I emailed a copy of the files this morning to cabinets@ecabinetsystems.com
if you want to look at them

Thanks
Damon

Todd Miller · Post by **Todd Miller** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 9:32AM

Damon,
F10 resets all of your function keys to their original state.

Your double pass number should look like this.
250\"^2
not
250\"~2

Shift 6 = ^

I am looking into your files now.

Damon Nabors · Post by **Damon Nabors** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 10:25AM

I will change the ~ to a ^, This is how it was set up when I received the machine or the tech set it up this way.

Todd Miller · Post by **Todd Miller** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 10:28AM

Damon,
I also sent a meesage to your email. Look at that as well.

One thing I didn't say in the email was that your waste board may have a lot of scoring from your daylight being off. This could also cause hold down issues for smaller parts.

FredHirsch · Post by **FredHirsch** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 1:14PM

Damon,
Two things we do that might help you on drawer boxes.
1. Surface table before running drawer boxes (we've found the table has to be really smooth to hold the small parts)... and cover any open table areas with scrap wood or cardboard.

2. We run a skin thickness of .05

Fred

Michael S Murray · Post by **Michael S Murray** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 1:35PM

Damon,
If your skin thickness is truly .003 that is probably your problem. IT should be .030 about the thickness of a dime or less. .003 is about the thickness of your hair and your wasteboard setting could be off this amount. This could be why the machine acted like it was cutting the skin that wasnt there. I also take off my dust shroud when cutting small parts..

Damon Nabors · Post by **Damon Nabors** » Mon, Nov 26 2007, 2:46PM

we are going to resurface the board this afternoon and change the thickness and try it again. The parts that did not move turned out great.

Thanks for the info.

Damon

Damon Nabors · Post by **Damon Nabors** » Thu, Nov 29 2007, 1:25PM

Thanks everyone. Just got back in town and wanted to say that changing the skin to .030 worked out great. Once again saved by the forum.