Cut out missing the tabs that were programmed into designer...

[Ton80]

Hello all... hope you have all been busy, busy, busy carving those holiday projects... I know I have.

Anyway, I just completed running the attached .MPC file and the cutout was supposed to have a minimum of 4 tabs. There were none and the cutout was completely loose when I walked over to the machine. I have never had this happen to me before on the few projects that I have run which required a cutout.

Luckily, no damage to the piece or the bit/machine but it's concerning to say the least that the program didn't run correctly.

Any ideas..? Bug of some sort? I'm using 1.184

[RogerB]

I think this happend becouse the tabs are on the bottom .You have a carve on the back of the board it cut and left the tabs but there was no wood for the tabs becouse it was carved on the backside.(I think this is Y)

[Ton80]

Roger, I thought of that before running the project and if you rotate the project to the isometric view, you will be able to see that I left the wood around the cut out so there was plenty of room for the tabs... this is where I'm wondering if there is a bug in the software because of the rectangle I did rout out, even though there was more than enough wood left over for tabs.

[fwharris]

to go with what Roger said, I would also increase the tab height to 1/4". I think the software does recognize the carving on the back side and should compensate for it when applying the cut out.

[mtylerfl]

Roger, I thought of that before running the project and if you rotate the project to the isometric view, you will be able to see that I left the wood around the cut out so there was plenty of room for the tabs... this is where I'm wondering if there is a bug in the software because of the rectangle I did rout out, even though there was more than enough wood left over for tabs.

Your layout seems to be fine, and the cut path seems to be setup correctly. I routinely set my tab thickness at 3/16" (all the POM's too). As Floyd mentioned, set at 1/4" for extra insurance!

I've seen tabs set at 1/8" get pretty thin...almost disappear. Not a software defect...I think it is just the nature of the wood itself most of the time...thin/narrow tabs can tear out easily. Also, a bit that has slipped slightly downwards from the chuck can cause a deeper cut and "eliminate" your tabs. That's rare, but possible.

Try as Floyd suggested and set the tabs thicker and let us know if that does the trick!

[Ton80]

Will do. I will have to go back and find an MPC file that had a cut out and see if I made that adjustment in the past and thus that is the reason I had no problems. I don't have any need to run this one again so I'll just make a note to change the defaults next time I go into designer so my tabs are 1/4"

Thanks

[RMarkey]

Many reasons your tabs went awol.

1. Bit used to find 'surface' of board was sharp, and dug into the board, effectively making everything cut deeper into it.
2. Depth measurement not calibrated.
3. Warped board.
4. Software doesn't recognize carvings on opposite side - you must adjust tabs in the tab window.

[mtylerfl]

Many reasons your tabs went awol.


4. Software doesn't recognize carvings on opposite side - you must adjust tabs in the tab window.

Hi Metallus,

I agree with the first 3 items you listed as additional possible reasons why tabs may "carve away"...but #4 puzzles me a little, as the CW DOES recognize carvings done on the backside and compensates accordingly if a tabbed cutout is present on the front side (picture frames with a carved pocket on the backside and a cut out on the front are the perfect example of this...tabs will be present on the front side cut out). Of course, for this to work, the file has to have BOTH the front and back layout within the same file so the software will "know" that there was a back side carve.

Take a peek at file that was posted...there is NO carved/removed material on the back side in the area where the front cut out needs any tab position compensation anyhow...the full thickness of the board is directly under the cut out area.

Please offer any correction if I'm wrong about this.