Trick for added depth?

[jadnil]

Greetings...new member here with a quick question regarding finding a way to 'trick' (so-to-speak) the CW into carving deeper than the .8" allowable with the 1/16th" bit. (And I think someone here published something about using a second project in some manner as an overlay to the first to accomplish this but I can't find the posting.)

I have a 1-1/2" board into which I want a carving that at some point reaches 1-1/4" deep (doesn't matter what it is for this example). So long as you are carful: 1) Not to cut beyond the bit's cutting flutes, 2) Cut thorugh the board, or 3) Hit the chuck on the wood, I would think it should be OK even though the CW has resisted my every effort to convince it otherwise.

As a PURE example, one way I would think that I could do this is to first set up one project in designer with a carve region that gives me a .75" deep carved recessed area of say 6"x6". Create an identical second project that 'centers' a second carve region over it on the same board of 4"x4" also with a depth of .75". After carving the first project (6x6 region), load the second project and "stop" the auto-seek to the (same) board's surface, instead jogging the head somewhere over the first cutout to trick it into thinking the board surface was .75" lower than it really was (which it now really is in the 6x6 region I am going to carve the 4x4 region into). Then, the second project (4"x4" area) should be carved at a net depth of 1.25" deep. When I try this however, the head does not seek to the bottom of the first (6"x6") cutout, going only about a quarter inch down. It never contacts the board and gets caught in the 'insert bit' loop, so the second recess never gets carved. Am I doing something wrong or is there a better approach?

Any ideas on a way to do this appreciated. THANKS!!!!

[cnsranch]

I tried the same "trick" when trying to use centerline in a carve region. Two projects, first one carved, loaded second project (with just text) jogged to the carved area, got stuck in the loop. Machine's smarter than we are (or than we think it is).

The way I got that to work was to fool the machine by letting the bit touch outside the carve region when it was measuring the board, but I used a bit that was exactly 1/4" shorter than the 60 degree v bit I was actually going to use (that 1/4" was the depth of the carve region). Right before the machine was ready to spool up for the carve, I stopped it, changed to the correct, longer bit, and it carved perfectly.

This doesn't answer your question completely, but does parallel your problem with the loop.

[DocWheeler]

jadnil,

Welcome to the forum!

As you discovered, the "touch" location can not be more than about a quarter inch below the touch-plate (or rollers). This is a source of frustration for those wanting to do Centerline text in a carve region.

CNS (the member) offered the best solution for that problem. I would, however, worry about this method for hogging-out material since it would extend the bit down so far that it would have a bigger mechanical leverage against parts of the machine. I think that you would be better off layering sections on top of other carved areas to achieve the look that you wanted.

Just my opinion.

[cnsranch]

As you discovered, the "touch" location can not be more than about a quarter inch below the touch-plate (or rollers).

Where were you when I went through the process of figuring out the problem with CL in a carve region? For the life of me I couldn't figure it out, finally gave up, and tried the "trick" that worked.

You're a genius :D

[DocWheeler]

Mr. Member,

I was as lost as you about that. I swapped a couple of pms with Paul K about doing something similar and lost interest.

I have not checked that long thread concerning our wishes for Designer changes, but I hope that something is done to allow CL in a recess.

[jadnil]

DocWheeler and CNS - thanks for your replies! This board is amazing in terms of it's wealth of information and super-knowledgeable members who are so willing to help us CW newbies - even when we each ask the same questions over and over.

I think I will try what CNS had mentioned with the shorter bit. If I'm understanding that correctly, you can just take your spare 1/16th carving bit and shift it up in the collar by 1/4" (as compared to the one you use) and do the last minute swap-out to gain the extra 1/4". You could then just adjust the spare up or down in the collar to gain the exact amount of extra depth you wanted. I would think you could carve through a board and even deeper if you were not careful.

DocWheeler, I'm not sure what you meant by "layering sections on top of other carved areas" in terms of achieving the extra depth - would that somehow allow me to accomplish the net 1-1/4" overall carve depth or is that just an appearances thing to make it look like I did so?

And I gotta ask this even if no one ever sees it buried down here in this thread: When using the scanning probe, does anyone use any particular magic to compensate for the slight angle induced by the conical shape of the probe on perfectly vertical scanned pieces?

Thanks again!
-Tim.

[DocWheeler]

jadnil,

What I was talking about laying up two or more layers of wood to accomplish the desired depth was something like this: Lets say that you wanted ti carve a pyramid that was 1.5" high, the machined can not carve that deep all at once, but you could carve the bottom 3/4" and the top 3/4" and glue them together to get the full height.

I have not fiddled with the new "erase" function, and am somewhat afraid to say this, but if it works like what I understand from the posts, perhaps it would be easy to create layers to glue together to create thicker carvings.