Hi all…I have completed several plots and a few practise engravings in estlcam. I think I am ready to do some more serious carving. my question is,how do I surface the work piece so that it is perfectly flat? I have the bit, but I am not sure how to do this in estlcam. Thank you for any help .
As a follow up, how can I also surface the spoilboard? Thanks again.
In the vector program of your choice create a rectangle with the size of your workpiece/spoilboard.
Export it in a format that ESTLcam can understand and import it there.
Select the rectangle and do a pocket operation, with 0.5-2mm depth, depending on how uneven your workpiece is.
Export the gcode and continue as usual, make sure that the start position of the bit is correct.
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^ what he said… and get a big bit.
I picked up a 1" end mill that I used.
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Thanks! That’s a huge help
What sort of surfacing bits are you finding? And what collet size?
I found a 1" surfacing bit with a 1/4" shaft on Amazon. It worked well .
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Yeah get a bigger bit if you can, I surfaced my spoilboard this weekend with a 6mm bit with 45% stepover at 15mm/s and it took almost 2 hours…
I’m sure I could have gone faster/with a higher stepover, but since I only have to do it once in a year or so I opted for a nice finish on the surface instead of rushing it. And now I know that my MPCNC can run for 2 hours without overheating 