I am trying to machine a lid for a box. How do I set tool path to remove that material between the insert and the lid edge?
The blue is the insert, going inside the box and the red is the edge of the lid. There is about 8 or 9 mm height difference. I need to figure out how to remove the area between the red and blue.
Brad,
What you want to do is select the “Carve” tool and then select the outer square.
When the green arrows pop up, move the mouse so that they only point inward.
Click the left mouse button and then you will have a window with the carve properties. Set the carve width to something larger than the distance between the two squares. This will carve out everything between them.
You can also set the depth of the carve in the properties window.
If you have already selected “Part” for the outside square as well, ESTLCam should automatically do the carve first, then the part cutout. If not, you can always change the machining order manually in the individual properties windows.
Thank you so much, I will try it.
Great pics also, very nicely done.
I think this might be relevant.
Oh, yeah, you’re right, the Island strategy makes way more sense. I think the carve will leave slopes on the edges.
Edit: Although if the bit is flat, it won’t. Crap, now I’m all confused 
Thank you both.
Yeah, I wouldn’t use carve.
If you are doing a lot of these, and you want a speed boost, you can make the “plug” out of a different piece of wood and glue them together. Anytime you pocket, it takes way longer. Cutting out two pieces will probably be 5-10x faster. If you can glue while the machine is working, you won’t lose any time to that.
