Recommend bits for this project

Had a bash at a fair few things now, but need to pop my 2.5d cherry! I’m not one for learning to walk before I can run so want to go in off the deep end!

All over Etsy are people selling stl models that are apparently compatible with Aspire. They are stupid cheap..... £2. What could go wrong?!

So a couple of questions for a relief carving virgin. Does Aspire know what to do with the model? I mean on normal pockets and profiles you just tell it what tool, depth, federate and spindle speed to do. Is this the same for reliefs?

Also for a design like this, say approx 800x500mm, what bits are appropriate? Ball nose end mills? What sort of sizes? How do you work down the bit sizes with Aspire? I know on regular pockets or v carve you get one clearance tool and a finishing tool to choose from..... this can’t be the case here can it? I’m sure you’d want a 0.5 or 1mm tool for the detail and a 6mm to clear, but this would take an age. Surely you’d want some intermediate sizes to hunk away material.....

Any advice appreciated. Attachment 29735

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

Had a bash at a fair few things now, but need to pop my 2.5d cherry! I’m not one for learning to walk before I can run so want to go in off the deep end!

All over Etsy are people selling stl models that are apparently compatible with Aspire. They are stupid cheap..... £2. What could go wrong?!

So a couple of questions for a relief carving virgin. Does Aspire know what to do with the model? I mean on normal pockets and profiles you just tell it what tool, depth, federate and spindle speed to do. Is this the same for reliefs?

Also for a design like this, say approx 800x500mm, what bits are appropriate? Ball nose end mills? What sort of sizes? How do you work down the bit sizes with Aspire? I know on regular pockets or v carve you get one clearance tool and a finishing tool to choose from..... this can’t be the case here can it? I’m sure you’d want a 0.5 or 1mm tool for the detail and a 6mm to clear, but this would take an age. Surely you’d want some intermediate sizes to hunk away material.....

Any advice appreciated. Attachment 29735

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I'm still learning myself but I have done a bit of 2.5d. use the rough carve feature to rough out and then you can actually draw a vector around an area....say with finer detail and specify a smaller ball nose or engraving bit. You can specify areas like that all over using different tools. You can also carve any vectors and map it onto the STL model. It's pretty clever stuff [emoji851]

Sent from my M2003J15SC using Tapatalk

Thanks for the tip on being able to hone in on more intricate parts. Will try that out.

I am also new to this stuff and a tip a read on another forum was to try another pass with the same diameter bit perpendicular to the first pass. I have tried it once and it worked well taking some more stuff from edges and places left untouched previously.

Poor New Zealand... Always forgotten :(

for something that size i would use a 12mm endmill for roughing,leaving about 2mm on, and then use a taper ballnose for finishing. i usually use one with a 0.5mm tip radius it gives pretty good detail

A word of caution.You will need both a CNC machine and an extraction system that can run for a full day without overheating.You may also need to run them for several days to get the level of detail in the sample pic.Aspire will give you a fair estimate once you have entered the toolpath details.the advice about tooling in the previous post is a very good starting point and by using Aspire you will have the facility to draw vectors around areas of fine detail where the very small tool can deal with the finer features.This is done by using those vectors to denote machining boundaries.You may then be able to use a larger radius tool for the areas with less variation in surface curvature.As I'm sure you will realise,a gently curved surface machined by a 12mm dia ball end cutter with a 0.7mm stepover will have a better finish than it would if done with a 1mm dia equivalent and a similar stepover.A finishing cut in two directions will dramatically reduce the amount of hand finishing and if there is any amount of had finishing in nooks and crannies,you probably won't enjoy the time consumed by it.Might I suggest you start with a more modest project than the item in the first post?Something abut 250mm square is enough to work out the process and still produce something big enough to hang on the wall-or feed the woodburner if it gets too tedious cleaning up the machining marks.

Great advice there from all. I’m sure my machine can handle the long cut times. As can my dust extraction with a bit of input. (Twin motor, can run each motor for 2 hour stints).

I like the idea of using bigger bits for smoother finish on the open areas.

I did a small piece last night in oak. 150x250mm. Roughing pass and then used a 0.75 radius bit single pass. Really surprised at the results. Will post a photo tomorrow. Total cut time 3 hours. I can see now how bigger pieces can take days. But I feel very much inclined to have a bash. You’re not a proper cnc er if you’ve not done a 24hour+ cut in my book 😉

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

You’re not a proper cnc er if you’ve not done a 24hour+ cut in my book ��

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So the gloves are coming off are they?! :beaten:

Kit

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Originally Posted by Kitwn

So the gloves are coming off are they?! :beaten:

Kit

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Boundaries are there to be crossed! I now want to go extreme cnc! If anyone has any ridiculous cnc ideas I’m up for trying it

Here is my first engraving. Turned out decent I think. Just a free image off google. Ready to try my bigger cut now with my £2 eBay ball nose bits.
Attachment 29754