Carve half now - other half tomorrow

[applik]

This may be an absurd question, but I'll never know if I don't ask. I finally finished the elk head entry door design. It is all raster and 3D, about 24" x 36". (estimated time by running the file in SB preview was 9 hours using 1/8 tbn at 5,5) We carved a small version of the design and it came out great, so I think we are ready to go. Reese is mounting the door as I write. I'm curious if we can carve half tonight and half tomorrow. If I select half the design with a vector box in ArtCam and tell it to carve inside vector, then do the same to the other half tomorrow; will it work? The file would have the same overall size and start point. Have any of you done this to break up large files... We are really anxious to get this design carved so thought maybe we'd try some of it tonight. I'm not sure about using the SB file splitter because I won't know where it will split the design, so I'd rather do it in ArtCam if possible.

[gwilson]

Not sure about doing it in ArtCam. But I did something accidently like that. I was cutting some stuff out, I was watching it cut and when the z pulled up it looked like the bit was coming out. I paused it to check and collet was bad. I wrote down The line I stopped it on, and location. Had to wait till next day to get collet, changed it, zzero routine and finished what I started. And if you look back in the forums I have seen others talking about stopping for the night and picking back up the next morning. As far as file splitter, I have not tried it yet.

[Brady Watson]

Shari,
There are 2 ways to do it. 1) Your way where you go thru the trouble of creating 2 seperate toolpaths or 2) Just hit the space bar when the tool is near the end of a raster & turn off the router. Come back in the AM & turn the router back on, let it warm up & resume. Leave the computer & control box ON overnight.

You can also stop the file & WRITE DOWN the line number that is highlighted on the screen AND XYZ locations displayed in the DRO. Then just quit the file. When you get back to it in the morning, jog the router over to the XYZ location that you wrote down & call up the FG command (file goto). Enter in the line number where the toolpath stopped the night before and press the goto line button. After it has reached that line number on the screen (give it a min or 2) Press the 'Run from Here' button. Don't press the run from here button until it gets to the line number you want!!! The file will pick up exactly where you left off. Be sure to leave your control box on over night.

Hope that helps!
-B

[applik]

Thanks guys for the info. I will try the ArtCam way first. I have to be able to shut everything down at night. We have two of the neighbors cats that we let in the bot room when its snowy and cold since it's heated and dry. I don't know why I say they belong the neighbors anymore, since I don't think they've went home in a looong time. They sleep in a little cat bed on the bot table. We have to put up the keyboard to keep them from playing on it.

When we can, we'll give the #2 option a try as well. Off to do some carving!

Thanks again,
Shari

[harryball]

I have a mental image of kittens in a basket sitting on the grantry while it zooms around. :-)

Cats in a shop with a 3HP dust collector and 4" dust ports... don't mix.

Robert

[applik]

Robert,

That made me laugh. Chuckwagon is around 9 years old I think. And Possum is about one. We do not have them in the bot room when we are carving. Usually during the day they go out to the barn. Hubby says I'm too soft. They are outside cats, but they sure seem to like it inside when it's bad weather. We are going to have to fix them up a "warm" zone in the barn so when we are carving late in the evening, they'll be happy. Right now they love Bluebonnet (the bot) and she doesn't seem to mind them sleeping on her lap. ;)
Shari

[jamesgilliam]

Don't we all like to be inside when the weather is bad?

[ryan_slaback]

I stop files all the time at school. I teach in the adjoining room to my bot. With the dust collector running and the bot on too sometimes it is a bit loud in the classroom even with the doors shut. I usually hit the space to pause while the router is running and then use the manual switch on the router to turn it off. I have let a file sit for some time this way. When I want to start it up again I just turn the router switch back on and then resume. It is seemless.

[jeffreymcgrew]

I stop files all the time. What I do is wait until a jog happens, then stop th eBot and write down the line number of the job. Then it's easy to start it again, for with the jogs it's moving over the top of the material to it's next cutting point. If you start midway through the job with a move command, the Bot will take a direct line to that point, carving into the surface of the material along the way. So unless you're right over the spot you want it to start from, I'd recommend restarting the job from a Jog instead. It works great for us.

[applik]

Not sure what happened while we were carving, but the usb cable got unplugged. The bot just stopped in the middle of a line with the bit 1/2" down into the wood. Of course it happened 6 1/2 hours into the design. ;( We did write down the line it was on. We tried everythig after we plugged it back in but had to hit the reset button on the control box. The bot lost all the settings. Used the laser pointer to get back to the original start point and did a C2 to make sure we were on the right height. Did the FG and picked three lines before the actual stop point. While traveling from the O,O,1 point it headed for the right spoit. When it was about 2" from that, it dropped too low and cut a small diagonal line across some of the carving. What did we do wrong? We finished carving the rest of the design and the x and y were dead on. The Z was a hair off - maybe a 32nd higher. Should I have moved the Z up higher than 1" and then let it come down or ? And I don't understand why the Z was off either since we did a C2 to the material again. It was a bummer day. We need to get this figured out. This was only a thick laminated slab for a test run thank goodness. Definitely thankful it wasn't an expensive door!
The design came out even better than we expected. Just curious though on how deep you guys carve a design into a door. This one was .56 but looked much deeper. Does it depend on the thickness of the door? I've done some searching but can't seem to find a general rule or guideline. Definitely don't want to warp a door!

Thanks,
Shari

[paco]

Once you've wrote down the line values and ready to use 'em with FG, you need to reach for the line X & Y position first prior to FG.

The reason is if this is a M3 or even worse a CG, it'll do it from where you are at.

So you save the line, you reach for it ans THEN you can use FG BUT ONLY FROM THE SAME VERY LINE. I suggest you play (air cut with some pencil marks and gage block) prior to use this feature in real situations.

Does that make sense?

In my opinion the FG (return to cut) system need some work done; it's not easy to use and thus can lead to problem... serious that is.

[robtown]

When you start it from a line number it will move in all three axis', for example if you start it at line # 2097 via FG and line 2097 is m2 34.5600,14.6500,-0.5600 it's going to move to that point exactly including the z move so going from 0,0,1 to 34.5600,14.6500,-0.5600 it's moving in z as well as x and y. This will mean that at some point between 0,0,1 and moving to 34.5600,14.6500,-0.5600 the router bit will plunge into the material -0.5600 on the diagonal. Make sense?

Next time use the file editor to preview the line number and get the x and y values (close and don't save changes from the file editor), do a j2 or m2 to xValue,yValue (at the safe z height) THEN do an FG to restart your file from the line number.

[applik]

That makes sense. We were both so rattled with the bot losing communication with the computer, we weren't thinking too clearly. We still have lots to learn and appreciate all the help and information.
Thank you all,
Shari

[cabindoors]

Hi Shari,

I hope that you'll post some pictures of your carved door. I also do carved doors and can't wait to see what other ShopBotter artists are doing.

Tom

[applik]

Tom,
I'll be happy to post a pic when we get it recarved. I looked at your elk door - VERY NICE! How deep did you carve? I looked for your email but couldn't fine one.
Thanks,
Shari

[applik]

It may be a bit before we get this thing carved again so I decided to post a pic from a screen shot from ArtCam. It's only the lower portion of the whole design, but you get the idea. The head is actually 18" wide. It doesn't look like it in the pic, but the wood carving looks a lot deeper than .56 (but we measured it and it's not). I'm thinking maybe .35 or so would be sufficient for a door. I'm a little over half finished with the new quail door design and am anxious to get that one carved too.
We are finally realizing our dream, thanks to all the helpful tips from you guys.
Thank you,
Shari
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