How's that? Yeah, what's your line? Hahaha! Hey guys we're Evan and Katelyn. And today we're gonna show you how to cut
complex shapes on your CNC with Fusion 360. I know software tutorials aren't always the
most engaging thing, so we're gonna use as little screencaps as possible, break it down
into digestible bits, include real life examples, and make it easy to follow whether you're
new to CNC or you have just enough experience to be dangerous. First off we're gonna go over the different
types of carving a CNC can do. Most common are outlines around a shape or
flat surfaces at different depths. You can make a lot of really cool stuff using
just these types of cuts, but you can also carve more 3D looking shapes or do really
complex designs with multiple flat surfaces, way more than you would wanna calculate manually. It's no big deal for a computer, but a computer
doesn't know what's in your head, so here's how to tell it what's in your head. First you need a 3D CAD model of the thing
you wanna carve. You can design one yourself or download existing
models to use. Then you show the CNC how to carve this model
from your stock material. This process is called CAM. Next you load these instructions into your
machine control software, in this case Easel. Click run, and your CNC takes those instructions
and starts carving. So this video's about how to cut fancy things
on your CNC, not how to model them in the first place, so we're gonna skip over CAD
and save that tutorial for another time. But we'll have a link to the file we're using
below so you can follow along with us. This means we're jumping straight into CAM,
which is the meatiest part of our tutorial. Meaty. In order to explain all these steps, we're
gonna show you how to make Kevin. This is Kevin. I know we said we'd try to minimize screen
captures, but for this next part, there's no avoiding them. If we go too fast, there's a link to our written
tutorial below so you can move at your own pace. Plus we have a link to Kevin's file so you
can follow along. We also included timestamps for easy navigation. Open your model in Fusion and click on the
CAM tab. You'll start by creating a new setup. This is where you'll define 1) what the raw
material is, 2) how your model is oriented, and 3) what you wanna end up with. We'll start with the stock tab. You can define your material, or stock, directly
in the setup tab. But we like to model the actual stock in CAD
and then define the stock from solid using the body we made. This is nice because you can move your model
around within the stock, see where it's gonna end up, and then regenerate your toolpaths
later. In this example, we'll use a piece of walnut
that's 8 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 3/4 inches thick. If your model is not oriented correctly, you
can easily change your work coordinate system by selecting the top of your stock for the
Z axis, and an edge for the X axis. Then choose the origin from your stock box
point, or model box point. The origin shows your machine what it should
consider to be zero, aka it's starting or home point.Some machines auto home to a certain
point, so you should set your origin to that location. For Carvey that is the top of your material
in the bottom left corner. But for a lot of other machines like the X-Carve
you can set your home point almost anywhere. We pick a spot that makes sense for the model
like the middle of the piece or a corner. In general you wanna choose the top of your
material as the home point. And that's because if you pause, stop, or
finish your carving, it will often try to return to home, and if your home's set at
the bottom, it'll try to eat through the material to get there. Now that you're done with the setup, we need
to tell Fusion what tool you're gonna use to cut. But first, a quick tip for ya! Make sure to enable your cloud library that
way your tools, post processors, and other assets are easily shareable between computers. Open up your tool library then click on your
cloud library and add a new mill tool. Select the type of cutter, most likely a flat
end mill, and enter the dimensions of your tool, measuring with calipers.We like to also
enter the speeds and feeds here so they're saved in the cloud too. The speed is how fast the bit rotates, but
some machines won't use this input, like the X-Carve. So you can skip this step if you want. The Carvey's speed can change, but in most
cases you'll wanna do 12,500 RPM since that's the most efficient for the motor. The cutting and plunge feedrates are probably
the most important numbers here because they determine how quickly the bit moves through
material, but that depends on your machine, material, and tool. We actually use Easel to cheat on this. Tell it your setup, and if you click on cut
settings it'll tell you a feedrate, plungerate, and depth per pass. Next you define the toolpaths, which are the
paths the tool is gonna take to cut your model out of the material. This sounds daunting, but there's preset options
you can choose from and customize, you can quickly simulate cuts to see what each path
does and see if there's any errors, and you can even layer multiple paths. First we'll do an overview of some useful
toolpaths, and then we'll dive deep into one of them to show you how to customize them. The toolpath we usually start with is Adaptive
Clearing. This is essentially an easy button to rough
out your shape from the stock as efficiently as possible. It makes room for your tool to do more detailed
passes later. This could be used as the only operation or
you can leave stock and finish it up in other operations. Parallel Passes are great for cleaning up
rounded areas. We like doing two sets perpendicular to each
other. Things like Circular and Pocket clearing are
great for cutting recessed areas out of your model. Our final toolpath is usually a 2D contour. This is a nice smooth last pass and it also
has the option to add tabs! These are great because they keep your final
model in place when it's being carved and they're easy to remove once you're done. Any path you choose has further details you
can customize. We'll dive into Adaptive Clearing options
so you can see how to handle these details. You start in the Tool tab, where you pick
the tool you defined earlier. Notice that the feedrates entered earlier
come with it. The Geometry tab defines what will be cut
out of how much stock. We choose an offset from the model to carve
within the boundaries of, otherwise the machine thinks it should eat away literally all of
your stock. We usually select Silhouette which restricts
the toolpath to a boundary around your part. Then we add some additional offset larger
than the diameter of your tool so it can fit all the way in. If your offset is too small, the tool may
not be able to reach where it needs to cut the model out. Rest machining might need a little bit of
an explanation. It's basically asking where it should begin
"machining the rest" of your model. For the first toolpath you make, choose from
setup stock. Further passes will usually get from previous
operations. This is also where you'll define what you
want your end result to be by choosing the body, or bodies, you want to cut out. The heights tab defines movements of the tool
such as clearance and retraction, and the defaults are usually fine for basic toolpaths. The passes tab is very important. This is where you define how aggressive the
depth of your cuts are, called out here as Stepdown. Remember the depth of cut we referenced earlier
that we grabbed from Easel? This is where you enter it. You should also pay attention to the Stock
to Leave option. Picture this as a protective bubble of material. When you're doing curves and slopes and wanna
layer additional finishing toolpaths after your Adaptive Clearing path, you need to leave
a little bit of extra meat to cut into. On the other hand, if you're doing just one
operation to get your final product, you can leave this option unchecked. For this topographical Texas we made a while
back, we liked the layered look left by just the Adaptive Clearing pass, so we left it
unchecked. But for Kevin, we wanted that protective bubble
of stock so that we could do a 3D Parallel pass or two to finish with finer detail. The linking tab is probably only for advanced
users and can be left at the default settings. Click ok and watch your toolpath generate! And now you can simulate your carving to get
a preview of what you'll end up with. Alright guys, you made it through the toughest
steps. It's pretty easy from here. To finish up, you need to select a post processor
so that Fusion can export cutting directions, called G-code, in a way that your specific
machine can understand. So remember how we enabled Cloud Library earlier
for our tools? This also added an asset library where we
can store CAM posts between machines too. Add the post processor you need for your machine
here. You can either post process the entire setup
you created with all the layered toolpaths, or you can pick just one toolpath from your
setup to post process. When you're ready, right click on the setup,
or specific toolpath, and click Post Process. Then find the post processor for your machine,
whether it's local or in the cloud, select the post processor, then click post! Alright, so you have some G-code. It's a little .nc file saved on your computer. Next open up the machine control software
for your machine, which is Easel for the Carvey and X-Carve. The process will be the same for any similar
CNC machine. Import the G-code file and you'll see the
toolpath show up. Click Carve, go through the checks, and you're
good to go! But before you carve, we have another quick
tip for ya. If you wanna test your G-code before running
it on expensive wood, you can run it on cheap material or in the air. Ok, let's take this little guy out. He's really cute! So at this point we haven't sanded Kevin at
all. And you can see how smooth the combination
of toolpaths we did got the finished surface. Real quick we wanted to say thank you to everyone
who supports us over on Patreon. This isn't a sponsored project, but it took
a lot more time and effort than a usual build, because of the awesome folks over on our Patreon
we can put out content like this for free so if you find value in what we do please
consider supporting us over on patreon dot com slash evan and katelyn. Thanks! Thanks! Hi I'm Kevin. Pleased to meet- oh oh! 'Scuse me- oh oh oh! Yay you made it to the end of the video! We know that this is a lot of information
to take in but it really opens up so many opportunities with your CNC. But you can always watch the video twice if
you want. Or more! Yes please haha! Let us know if you have any questions in the
comments below and if you haven't subscribed you should subscribe and make sure to hit
that bell thing that thing's cool. It notifies you of things. When we upload videos and stuff! And if you wanna see behind the scenes stuff
and extra info we have an after show as well, and you can check that out at patreon dot
com slash evan and katelyn. Don't know my lines. Aww so cute. As few screencaps as possible... sc sc sc
sc. Haha it's like you look like you're celebrating
but it looks like you're celebrating that you're gonna kill me hahaha! Hi I'm Kevin I'm slippery. I like to dance. Do do do do do do do do I'm Kevin! Aw Joobie loves Kevin. Hahaha she looks a little unsure. Hahaha. Hahaha shows us what she thinks about Kevin! Hahaha! We're sorry Kevin. We're sorry!
Great video! As someone who recently purchased an x-carve (partially influenced by you two) I really appreciate this type of content. I know you put a lot of work behind the video, and it shows. Thanks!
Awesome content! This video breaks down the steps in a way that feels unintimidating to people new to CNC. Thanks for sharing
Great video that was very kid friendly! Thank you.