So my meat cutting board will have 6 flutes running thr entire length of the board. The center of each flute (middle of the cutting board) needs to be shallow, but then curves (or bows) down on each side so that any liquids will drain down and run off the edge of the board. Kind of like ramping, but opposite I guess. I just cant quite get my head around how to create such flutes. Can anyone help?
Could use a large (maybe 1/2" enough?) ball end bit and use carve, like V-carving. Would have to draw the outside shape of what you want, less than 1/2" wide, would that work? Gary
3D is about the only way I can think of too. But i would also consider jigging. Prop it up at an angle and do a 2D toolpath - now it does follow the contour you had it tilted at.
That could work I guess. I'll play around a bit more with it It's hard to get my head around though.
Propping it up wouldn't work because I'd have to mill sideways, which I can't do. Interesting idea though, thanks
I think he meant shim it on one end while cutting the flutes. This way one end is slightly higher so when you run the flute cutting tool path, the flutes get progressively deeper when you get to the edge. This would prevent you from having to run it as a 3D model. But, maybe I am misunderstanding what it is you are trying to accomplish.
Steve. is there any reason why you don't want to cut it as a 3D object? A pic or two (or drawing) might help us understand what exactly it is you are trying to achieve
I would just draw the pattern I want and generate the gcode as straight lines from center to edge at constant depth. Then I would edit the Gcode to make the inside end shallower.
i managed to make a picture of how i would like the flute to look. now i just need to make a toolpath for it
Your original thread title mentions wanting to do this in Vectric, but you have it modelled in Fusion now? Would you consider using Fusion's CAM as well?
I have no idea how to use fusion, I just botched a model thats kind of close to what I'm trying to achieve in fusion
I just cooked up a little test in Sketchup, a rectangle with radial lines like this the radials are purple because I have set them to be 'fold tool cuts'. Material is 6mm, fold cuts are 50% deep, so cuts are 3mm deep. Generating Gcode from that (with SketchUcam plugin) gets me file grooves.nc , attached. That will cut constant depth grooves, 3mm deep. I then edit the file to make the lines slope, I had to find the ends nearest the center (center is the 0,0,0 point) and make sure that end of the line is at Z0 and the other, outer end is at Z-3 That gives me file grooves2.nc, attached. Size and shape of the cutter doesn't really matter to this Gcode, adjust feedrates to suite, material is 150x250mm or smaller. Go ahead and cut a piece of insulation foam with this and make sure you understand what I have done and why, and then you are ready to do your own. (well, try, but test on foam, mistakes will happen)
This I what I managed in the end. It's my first try at something like this. I originally wanted the flutes to bow down from the middle but I never figured it out, so it's just ramped flutes.
