4 Essential CNC Toolpaths Every Beginner Should Know | Carbide Create Tutorial

in this video we're going to be talking about the four tool pads that you need to know as a beginner CNC woodworker it is the pocket tool path the vcarve tool path and the Contour tool path and a v-carve with the flat bottom so if you're brand new and really don't know a whole lot about toolpass I believe that these four will get you started hey what's going on guys this is Edgar with a Timber Pine and when I first started using my COC I really didn't know what to press what options to use what tool paths even were so it took me some time some digging around and I eventually got it so the purpose of this video is just to give you some knowledge to get you more comfortable and give you more confidence when it comes down to carving your first project hey what's going on guys it's Deb here from the future as I'm editing this video I just realized that I didn't even Define what a tool path is a tool path is the set of instructions that tells the CNC how to carve so when you enter some of the details in your toolpath section of your program whether it be carbide create or another it's going to basically start creating those details that recipe on how the CNC should run when it's time to actually run the project so in this video we're just covering the four fundamental topaz that I believe every beginner should know let's go ahead and go back into the video so like I said we're going to be covering the four fundamental tool paths that I think you should know to get you started I'm not going to be doing any specific projects we're just going to go ahead and jump into carbide create and go over the different tool paths whether or not you're using carbide create is irrelevant you can use whatever program you're using just take the knowledge and apply it to the program of your choice and one last thing guys before we jump into it if you are getting value out of the content of this channel make sure to like the video subscribe to the channel and leave me a comment it all helps out with the algorithm with that being said let's go ahead and jump into the video we're going to be using this simple shape the simple rectangle as our example for discussing the tool path with our Vector selected we're going to click on tool paths we're going to then start with the Contour tool path or use current selection and for this example we're going to be using the 1 8 inch End Mill we're not going to go through any settings we just want to go ahead and talk about and see how you can use the tool paths with that in mind when you use a contour toolpath there are two applications for it the first application is carving on your vector line you have the opportunity to carve the line and not only that you have the opportunity to carve on the outside of the line or on the inside of the vector line so it's kind of like a coloring page let me actually bring up a coloring page real quick let's assume that this Mario is a vector in carbide create we are going to have the option to sell select whether or not we want to carve on the black lines or whether we want to carve on the outside of the lines or if we want to carve on the inside of the lines so option number one when carving with a contour tool path you have the option to just carve on the lines okay the second option is going to be carving out a shape or a design a logo a Mario for example we could carve this completely out from a larger piece of material and we would still have to select whether or not we want to carve on the line within the line or outside of the line depending on the desired output will determine what option you select let's go ahead and go back to carbide create so with that in mind let's talk about the first example first let's just carve on the material itself we have to set a max depth when we are carving into the material and we're not cutting through it we want to set a Max step again depending on the output that you want will determine the max depth that you select if you're just wanting to carve a sign want to carve a flag for example the max step that I recommend would be anywhere between .03 and .05 my current favorite Max step is .04 I don't believe that you need to go much deeper you're just trying to carve the stain away or the pain away to get the natural wood underneath allowing you to either leave it as is or paint the letters so go ahead and set a Max step the offset direction will allow you to determine whether or not you want to carve on the line itself on the inside of the line or on the outside of the line so currently inside left is selected and you can see here that my Vector is this red line my tool will be running here on the blue line so it's going to carve on the inside of the vector in this drop down menu you have the option for outside right and it changes it to outside the vector line and you have the option for no offset which allows you to carve on the line for the purposes of this simulation I'm going to increase this to 0.1 just so that we are able to see it a little bit better let's go ahead and click on the simulation now and so in this simulation you're able to see that the end mode is carving right on the vector line giving us that nice rectangle but what if I wanted to carve this rectangle out what if I wanted this shape completely out we're going to go back into our tool path and we're going to select stock bottom for our Max step we want to carve completely through it we're going to determine what offset we want typically when I carve things out of larger pieces of material I want outside right selected I want the entire dimension of this rectangle here when it's carved on the outside right that will be my output if I were to carve on the inside I'm cutting this short I'm not going to get the entire dimensions and same with no offset I'm not going to get the entire piece so outside right is typically what I choose and one last thing even before coming into the tool pass we have to set up tabs when you're carving something out from larger pieces of material if you don't have tabs what tends to happen is that the End Mill as the router gets down closer to the bottom of your material the End Mill has a tendency of hitting your material because it starts moving it starts shifting within the larger piece of material and the End Mill starts to knock it out of place and eventually it will pop it out from your larger piece of material and actually ruin it so you want to set up tabs to set up tabs you have to be in the design tab you have to have your vector selected and you want to click on this edit tabs option you're then going to click on your vector line and place these tabs go ahead and click OK once you're done once you have those set up now you can go to your tool paths and let's just edit this one right here real quick and now you have the option to edit the width or the height if you need to I typically don't mess around with these I just let the default number stay but again you have the option to edit that if you'd like let me update this back to stock bottom let's go ahead and click outside right and let's go ahead and click OK and let's take a look at the simulation now all right so in this simulation you can see that the white background is showing through meaning that I'm cutting through or carving through the entire piece of the material and this rectangle is going to be secured to the larger piece of material by these tabs so when you're using the Contour tool path those are the two options that are available to you next let's talk about the pocket tool path the pocket tool path is a very versatile tool path and you're able to do a lot of things with this as well but let's talk about two fundamental functions or options that you have available with the pocket tool path the very first one is going to be creating Pockets or recesses within your larger piece of material so let's say I was making a catch-all tray and I wanted to create an area to be able to place my phone let's pretend that my phone is going to fit within this area well I need to create a pocket to remove all that material out I'm taking material away or out from my larger piece of material and so with a vector selector we come over to the toolpath option we're going to click pocket use current selection and to create the pocket you have several different tools that you're available that you can use you can use end mills you can use ball bits it all depends again on the output that you want if you're a beginner probably the quarter inch or the 1 8 inch End Mill is what you're going to use to create those Pockets so after your tool is selected you have to create a max depth and depending on the output that you need that will determine the max step that you're going to select so let's just create a pocket at 0.1 inches and let's click ok here the blue lines are telling you that this area is going to be carved using your end Mill let's take a look at the simulation in this simulation you can see that the pocket has been created there is a recess within this piece of material there's that little lip there so that was a successful run of this pocket tool path but not only can you create recesses like this you can actually carve designs logos using the pocket tool path let me bring in a design real quick I just brought this image from the carbide crate Library let's go ahead and use this vector or this design as our example so clicking on tool paths will select pocket we'll use current selection we'll leave it at the 1 8 inch End Mill my max depth is going to be .04 because I don't want to carve too deep let's go ahead and click OK and let's take a look at the simulation so not only can we create those recesses for just simple shapes we can actually create designs into our material using a pocket tool path depending on the design and the details that are in the design you may not be able to just use a 1 8 inch End Mill or an End Mill in general but just keep in mind that there may be some limitations but depending on the design you may just be able to use a pocket tool path moving on to the next tool path that's going to be the v-carve tool path one thing that you need to keep in mind when using the vcarve tool path is that you do need two vac vectors or vectors that are close to each other to make this happen to make this work the reason being is that if you can imagine a v bit it kind of looks like a V or an arrowhead those two edges the cutting edges or the blades are going to be within two vectors so it's perfect for text it's perfect for shapes that have two vectors so if you're thinking about what I just said you already know that this is not going to be able to be v-carved at least not successfully I already have a video published on how to use the vcarve tool path so I won't go into much of that detail you can go ahead and watch that video for a more in-depth explanation of how the B card works but for this example we are not able to v-carp this rectangle but even so let's take a look at a simulation when we try to run a v-card tool path on this Vector so we'll click on tool paths click V carve use current selection we'll just keep it as a 60 degree v-bit and the max depth when you run a vCard toolpath should be stock bottom don't worry it does not carve through your material carbon create will determine how deep it needs to cut to get you the proper output so the Blue Line in here is the path that the VBA is going to take and it's trying to carve this shape out first of all you have one vector and it's too wide here so it's going to be way too big for the 60 degree view bit or any v-bit let's take a look at the simulation so this is what our output would be it's going to plunge really deep into this material so that's not going to work let's go back to our design and let's make this work what we need to do is we need to create an offset and let's just create an offset at 0.5 on the inside now we have these two vectors we can select those we're going to run a tool path let's get rid of this one select vcarve use current selection we'll keep it at 60 degree vbait we're going to let the program determine how deep it needs to carve click OK and now you can see that the blue line is Within These two vectors and it looks like a better carb let's actually take a look at the simulation and there you have it guys this would actually be a successful carve so this tool path is really good for designs logos that have a lot of detail great for text let's go ahead and use this as an example let's go ahead and select it we'll click on tool paths we'll delete this one select vcarve use current selection use stock bottom click OK and then we'll show the simulation and there you have it a very nice looking sign right there and just one more example let's use this free design that came with carbide create let's go ahead and select it let's click on tool path we can get rid of this one vcarve use current selection use stock bottom click OK let's take a look at the simulation and there's a pretty cool looking sign the vcarve is actually a very versatile tool path the more you use it the more practice you get the more confident you'll be with it let's go ahead and talk about the last tool path the advanced vcarve next okay and the final tool path that we're going to cover is the advanced vcarve tool path and the advanced vcarve toolpath is a v-carve but it's going to be a v-carve tool path with a flat bottom so I kind of think about it as a pocket tool path and a better pocket tool path and I'm going to show you why there are different applications for the pocket versus the advanced vcarve but I do believe the advanced V carve really shines when you have a logo or a symbol or something that you want to have a flat bottom but it also has multiple different Corners different texts with different sizes and we're going to see how it applies here in this example but before going into that let me just reiterate it is a v carve but it is a v-carve with a flat bottom and since it does have a flat bottom we need to treat it kind of like a pocket tool path where we have to set a max depth whereas in the vcarve tool path I just said let's select stock bottom or the thickness of your material and let carbide create do the determination of what the max depth is on the advanced vcarve tool path we have to set a max depth okay so let's go ahead and just talk about this example so with this selected we're going to go ahead and click on tool paths and I want to show you real quick what the pocket tool path looks like in this example I'm pocketing it with a 1 8 inch End Mill and you can see here all these blue lines are the path that the End Mill is going to take it looks pretty good but when you come in here you can see that this e this area right here is too small for the End Mill to enter so it's not even going to carve that we're not going to be able to get these Corners here this sharp Point here this area it's not going to be able to carve that out because of the geometry and the size of the End Mill let's take a look at a quick simulation looking at these nostrils they're not going to come out as they should like on the on the design so that's something to keep in mind like I mentioned the E is not carved correctly even the a is not carved correctly I didn't notice that up first but you can see here in the simulation the a is not carved correctly also the N is not carved correctly right because in the design it comes to a straight point and then goes back up it's not able to do that with the 1 8 inch End Mill let's go back to the design real quick you can see here the point there and here and I didn't notice this originally but the it is not even carved out the text is too small for the 1 8 inch end mode it's only carving this little area right there so that is what the output is going to be like it's not perfect right so now let's enable the advanced vcarve tool path these bigger wider lines are going to be carved with the 1 8 inch End Mill as before but this darker blue area is going to be carved using the 60 degree V bit the v-bit is able to enter into these areas and carve a tighter path allowing it to be carved correctly you can see here on the end the end Mill is going to go up to this point but the v-bit is going to come in here and carve all this out giving us that sharp output let's take a look at the simulation comparing the nostrils again you can see that that carved out correctly this time around the E looks good as well as the a the N is now carved as it should with this point here and the its is actually carved out this time so you can see how the advanced v-carve actually really shines when you want to have a design with a flat bottom and it has some of these sharp Corners sharp text and you can see how the advanced vcarve is one of those tool paths that you're going to use a lot and so that is the advanced with vcarve I hope you guys were able to take something away from this video if you did make sure to take a look at the other videos I have that are for beginners I think those videos will get you started so I'll see you over there questions foreign [Music]

Channel: AE Timber & Pine

Views: 6,296

Keywords: bottle opener, cnc, carbide create, shapeoko, cnc router, carbide motion, carbide create pro, desktop cnc, nomad pro, digital fabrication, nomad cnc, machining, do it yourself, carbide create tutorial, carbide3d, carbide 3d, cnc design, how to, shapeoko xxl, hobby cnc, shapeoko cnc, cnc woodworking, cnc projects, cnc machine, aspire, beginners cnc, shapeoko projects, svg, vcarve, thin blue line, woodworking, american flag, keyhole, keyhole slot, cnc for beginners

Id: CavxbE-FTqQ

Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 23 2023