Hi folks,
I am still working on the guitar neck and have had what I would call Brute Force success. It seems like some of the things that I am doing in a round-about way would have some better way to deal with. Some of the things, I just have not found a way at all...
1) One of my biggest problems is when I am trying to do the 3D cuts on materials that have a rapid changing Z slope, there doesn't seem to be anything to account for the chuck or that the bit only has 1" exposed. It seems to want to plunge to the spoiler board if it is on the edge. So far, I have managed to just limit the toolpath area so it can't get down there (for the rough pass at least). However, my initial rough pass was with a 3/4" bit and it worked great clearing the bulk stuff away in record time. Of course, not much definition. So, I would like to make a second "rough" pass with a 1/4 bit. As my material started at 2.8" tall, it wants to start milling from that height. I can find no way to tell it to start cutting from 1.5" rather than the 2.8" of the project. Yes, I can change it, calculate, change it again; but I wish I knew how to make it just make use of the headstart of the 3/4" toolpath. Optimally, I could tell it to use the 3/4 rough pass as the starting point and continue from there.
2) I had to do lot of the rough running with manual surface planing to remove material so that I would know the chuck would not hit it. My waste material that I had glued to the sides to hold it down was high enough that the chuck would hit it as it was working just a regular rough pattern. I needed it that high for then I milled the other side which I did first. Once flipped, the purpose of them being that high was fulfilled. But they were now in the way. So, I milled them down with surface planing plans.
Well, there are other points; but this is enough for now.