Advice for how to rough and finish a complex 3D surface using EstlCAM?

Software / Firmware EstlCAM
1

So I taught myself guitar, and rather than start with lessons or a book I learned to play every part of stairway to heaven, completely by ear. on a classical nylon string guitar with the wide neck. yep.

i guess I want to take the same approach with learning CAM, but internet forums are around these days, with some damn good advisors :slight_smile:

I have the standard kyocera bit set from Ryan’s store, and willingness to buy anything I’d need to be able to carve something like this:
STL of lake tahoe

I’m thinking it should be contour machining, due to the shape.
Appreciate any tips or videos to get me started. I watched the EstlCAM tutorial on 3D machining so far.

2

You can import the stl into estlcam. It’ll walk you through the settings. I’d practice on some foam insulation first.

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Generally I do this, then open the gcode in a text editor and split it out into two separate operations at the tool change. A lot of time this kind of thing takes a while, and having the break is nice.

3

I notice its tooling the whole thing. i don’t guess there is a way to just have it carve out the lake?
On the gummybear video estlCAM it just carves the bear out – not the entire mold. any idea how to set that up in estlCAM? thanks!

4

You’d need to draw a mask in something like inkscape to import. Or edit the model so it’s only the lake.