My background: 27 years as a general IT technician. I use Autodesk Fusion and a 3-D printer to make small items. However, I know almost nothing about CNC.
A friend gave me his Innovation Squared Creation Station CNC Router and I want to use it to engrave text into wood. I’m using Vectric Aspire to create it. When I created a test text and previewed the path in Aspire, it looked great. When I ran the test in the Chilipeppr TinyG workspace, the tool, a 90-degree 1/2" bit, plunged full depth into the wood for the whole thing. I know that CNC is pretty complex, but if someone here can point me in the right direction to figure out what I need to do, I’d be most grateful. Thanks.
Did you set your Z zero to be the top of the stock you were cutting?
If you are used to 0 being the bed from 3D printing, you might think that you want to zero Z to the bed on the router. But in subtractive machining, the most common zero reference is the top of the stock, possibly after facing it flat.
Sounds like you have something like depth set incorrectly in the Aspire software. Somewhere you have to tell the software how thick your material is and how deep the engraving is. I don’t use Aspire so can’t tell you where those settings are.
Could it be that the text you’re using is simply too wide, causing the V-bit to cut deeper than expected? Curious, change your font and see what happens.
I do all of my CNC programming in Inventor and Fusion, but I still have an older copy of Vectric VCarve Desktop v10.5. It should be similar to Aspire. It’s been several years since I’ve used it, so I had to refresh my memory on the setup. I noticed all of my custom tool definitions were gone, so I just selected the default 60° 1/4-inch V-bit from the library.
I watched this refresher video:
Everything seemed straightforward, so I mostly left the default settings alone. I set the top surface of the material as my Z zero, and the toolpath preview looked correct. I didn’t actually run the job on my CNC, but based on the preview, I don’t see any obvious issues.
Maybe you could share more details about your Aspire settings or post some screenshots. That might help narrow down what’s causing the problem.
Thanks for the replies. Zero is at top of stock. Font is Times New Roman.@heathenx, I haven’t watched the video yet, but I will right after this post. Thanks.
If you use Fusion for making 3D printed stuff, why’d don’t you continue with using it for your CNC stuff? According to the info I found fusion has a tinyg.cps post processor that works in the CAM setup.
You are going to want to learn it sooner than later…
If youre in Aspire, definitely check that your tool definition has both the bit diameter AND the V-angle set correctly — that’s what Aspire uses to calculate the actual depth of cut. Easy to grab the wrong tool from the library or have it defined with a 60 degree angle when your bit is 90. If the profile doesn’t match your actual bit specs, itll cut all wrong.
