How do I cut a perfectly centered keyhole in wood?
Can you give a little more info, are you asking how to do it in CAD?
Yeah how to place it in Estlcam and where do I place the bit at on the wood so that it cuts it in the center?
Also how do I cut something with one bit, switch to another bit, and ensure it will still cut in the area I specified to cut in Estlcam?
Two options. 1-Have your CAM start in the center of the cut, measure your piece for a center line and manually place it there and start the cut. 2- Start at the corner and use work offsets in CAM to drive the machine.
There are many ways to swap bits but if you want more info Some Old Guy Coding has a video that covers 5 of them. You probably want to wait on this one.
Thanks!
Do you have a keyhole bit or at least a dovetail bit?
Is what Jeff is suggesting. If I were doing it, I’d just make up some cam solely for the hole. Then you can manually position the bit to where you want the hole, zero everything out, and have it cut the slot. Basically it’s a plunge, then move however far you want the slot, then move back to x/y zero, and raise up to z zero. No clue what kinds of feeds and speeds something like this will take. Definitely want to figure that out in a scrap piece of whatever you’re cutting in first.
Yeah, definitely. Too fast will flex something and cause it to grab too mich and ruin everything. Too slow and you’ll burn up the chips that aren’t leaving. IIRC, EstlCAM can do this with leadin and leadout positions. Let us know what you find out.
Yes I have a keyhole bit. I was planning on making a keyhole design and setting the start point at where I want it to be cut. Thanks.