R & L side blind dado

[john_hartman]

I thought I would share the solution to a frustrating occurrence.

On my second ecabinets job, which was face frame, I decided to use blind dados on the right and left sides. I had these set at 60% of material thickness and 1/8" deep. I was able to draw the cabinet this way and nest it in the link. However it would not "write to shopbot". It would lock up and shut down.


It took about 2hrs for me to redraw the cabinet without certain features to uncover what the issue. What I determined was that since I was using a .25 bit and my dado was only 1/8"; it could not get the bit in that space. Once I increased the dado to .25 there was no problem completing the program. Perhaps if the part spacing was alos larger that would have taken care of it..

[Gary Campbell]

John...
The pocket and tenon dados are generated as rectangles. These rectangles are generated at the size specified. They will not be located beyond the edge of a part. So, increasing part spacing will not help. I am not aware of any CAM software that will allow you to cut inside a rectangle with a bit that is larger than the width of the rectangle.

I am sure you now know that: 1) Dado depth MUST be equal or larger than your smallest bit. 2) Tenon percantage * Mtl thickness must be equal or greater than your smallest bit.

Normally an error of this type returns the "big yellow could not cut" error box that lists the sheet, part and geometry numbers. You can see these by taking a cabinet or job to the nest in eCabs. Double click on a sheet, then a part and zoom in to see geometry locations, depths and types.

How many sheets in the nest? How much RAm on the computer?