PDA

View Full Version : Cutting through a thin board on a sled?



Matthew
12-17-2006, 11:36 AM
I'm trying out carving a picture into acrylic. I'm using 1/4" acrylic and I'm attaching it to scrap piece of 1" wood cut to the same size. This process has worked well for the general carving, but now I want to cut out the piece. In particular, I've carved a picture and want to cut out a nice oval around it. Creating the oval is easy as is specifying a cut path. However, in this case I don't want to cut completely through the total 1.25" material; I only want to cut through the top 1/4" of acrylic. In Designer, I've specified my board as being 1/4" thick, but I know the machine will attempt to cut through whatever thickness board it detects.
How can I cut the oval just through the top 1/4", but still have the small tabs to keep the cutout from being tossed about?
I thought I had seen this previously in this forum, but I can't seem to find it now.

Thanks,
Matthew

Dan-Woodman
12-17-2006, 03:05 PM
Matthew
Don't do a cut path , just make your oval, select a bit and tell it to cut just over 1/4" deep . As for the tabs , I 'm not sure , you can use double stick tape though. I think there is a way to break the path , but I'm not that familiar with it . Later Daniel

Matthew
12-17-2006, 05:09 PM
Dan,
That's a good idea. I've got some double-sided carpet tape that might work and any issues created by a wobble or shift in the piece could be sanded out pretty easily. I've been countersinking screws into the far left and near right corners to hold the piece and then always selecting keep under rollers, but a spot of carpet tape directly under the carving might work just fine since the cutout is the last thing to be done and it doesn't need to hold the piece while carving is taking place on it.
Thanks for the tip! The ole cogs need a little grease once in awhile! :D

David M.
12-18-2006, 10:01 AM
Mathew, you should be able to set the depth of the cut to cut only throught the plastic and not the backing. In your design page set your thickness to the 1/4" for the board size and the machine should cut that reguardless of it being on a backing.

Matthew
12-21-2006, 09:15 PM
Just for clarification, here is what I've encountered.

With a cut path or a drill, my machine will cut through whatever thickness of board is in the machine, regardless of what was set in the software. As an example, I draw an oval and then use the cut path tool on a board with settings of 6" x 4" x 1/4". Then I put in a 1" board and it will cut all the way through the board. This is using the latest version of software .115 and firmware.

Dan's suggestion of just setting the bit and depth for the oval works perfectly. I believe that the cut path tool is intended to cut all the way through the board in the machine (up to 1"), regardless of the thickness specified in the board settings.

Dan-Woodman
12-21-2006, 09:30 PM
Matthew
You are correct. But the drill option is for drilling holes. any diameter , any depth.

cmorlier
12-22-2006, 09:24 AM
At this point, cut-through operations which include the cut path and drill through the board, as well cut-to-size from the machine, use the measured depth of the work piece.

We are planning improvements to the firmware to support jigged work pieces. The new features will allow you to specify a work piece depth that is less than the total thickness measured by the machine.

We hope to begin work on these features early in the new year.