Deep inlays VCarving detailed tutorial with Vectric VCarve 

Exactly my thought! wow so well done!

I still dont get why we have to use start depths at anything other than 0. Why do we have to trick the machine into three passes instead of just cutting the plug at 0mm to 9mm and letting the program generate the passes automatically that it can handle cutting?

@@smulths Because the cut would be too deep for the bit you are using (possibly) and could snap the bit. The question I just asked is because my 1/8" clearance bit only has a pass depth of .0625" I would need multiple passes.

Thanks for the feedback!

Knowing it helps people having fun and achieve results by not reproducing all the mistakes I went through (and still do) is always a great feeling. Thanks. ;)

Thanks for the kind feedback!

Thanks!

I didn't understand what he was doing with the plug cut. Why not set your z zero 2mm or gap wanted above your material? I must be missing something on this

Thanks for the feedback! I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun creating inlays!

Yes thinking everything through several time actually saves times in the end. How many time did I have to re-make plugs because I had forgotten to mirror the design...

Thanks!

And now I machined my design. It works perfectly so I got good result and RU-vid signed box. Thx again.

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback. Can't wait to see your project!

Thanks! Indeed it's a good idea to minimize the movement of the heaviest part by changing the Raster Angle!

Wood projects are a bit like exams: all good when you prepare and try before, but on the day... I know the feeling! :D

Happy it helped you! Yes I grew metric and all the tooling we get here (Europe) is metric. :)

Thanks Andrea. I get as much joy in sharing than in learning. For the CNC, I love my Sorotec machine but it's not cheap (comes from Germany, starts around 2k€). For about half of that you probably can get a Chinese 6040 from Amazon or Aliexrpess. I know plenty of people who are happy with it even if it won't be as rigid as the Sorotec.

Thanks. Yes, 90° is really wide. I generally use 10° bits! :)

Thanks!

Glad you liked it!

Sorry for the metric. ;) Let me know how it went!

Haha I'd love to use metric but all my measuring tools are imperial :(

@@stephanforseilles Hi Stephan - I have a question about the cutting depths in each toolpath. For the first pass in your plug it will cut 3.5 mm in total. Do you still have the bit run multiple passes to get down to 3.5 (i.e. does it do 3 or 4 passes at 1 mm each during that toolpath) or do you have the bit cut that full depth in a single pass?

@@ianbost193 Yes, up to 4-5mm in one pass is okay for my machine. If we're talking about the plug and you want shallower cuts BEFORE start depth then you have to create more 'fake toolpaths', more closely spaced. Anything between start depth and flat depth, Vcarve will create the passes based on how you've configured your bit.

@@stephanforseilles Yes I think we are talking about the same thing. For example in your first toolpath for the plug you start at 1.5 and go to 2.0 flat. That is a total 3.5mm of material removed for that toolpath. Then you are using a 3.125mm endmill for the clearance. I assume then you are setting that endmill's pass depth (via Edit...) to something high enough to get it done in a single pass. As opposed to it having a default pass depth of say, 1 mm, in which case it would start from 1.5, plunge 1mm to 2.5 and do a pass, then plunge another 1mm to 3.5 and do a second pass (for the total 3.5 mm on that toolpath). When I did mine I didn't take this into account and so every tool would go around the entire thing, go a tiny bit deeper, go around again, etc etc. Took a long time. Apologies for these questions haha. I bought a shapeoko and the very first thing I did was to try a v-carve inlay (standard method 0.2 inches deep, 60 degree bit). Now I've watched all of your videos and so the second thing I decided to do was move straight to deep inlays in endgrain using your method. Thanks again :)

Glad you found it useful!

Thanks! As a European I cannot grasp imperial, it must be genetic! :) But next time I will enrol Google to convert for me so I can put imperial measures in the captions.

@@stephanforseilles In your Tool Database for the 15 degree bit you are using, shows a Geometry Diameter of 6 mm. This is equivalent to 0.23622 inches. For the Amana Spektra #45780-K SC CARVING LINER 15°VT. 1/4"SH, the Diameter shows 0.1875 inches, (4.7625 mm). Is the bit you are using shorter in length? I guess a better question is, what 15 degree bit are you actually using?

@@Warpfield Hi indeed 6mm is just below a quarter inch. It's 50mm long in total but that's not really relevant (I generally create new bits in the database by copying an existing one first and I almost never change the total length). What's important is the length of the carving part which is the same on all the bits of the same diameter and angle as long as the angle goes all the way to the full diameter. This is an example of such a bit: amzn.to/3djvOeG . You can also easily find them on Banggood for example: www.banggood.com/Drillpro-6mm-Shank-0_1mm-Tip-10-or-15-or-20-or-30-or-45-or-60-Degree-Engraving-Bit-CNC-Tool-p-1478458.html?rmmds=detail-left-hotproducts__2&ID=6155424&cur_warehouse=CN But I couldn't find one on Amazon.com...

Great tip!

alternatively, you can change back and forth between metric and imperial using the job set up icon in Vcarve after your work is done. It will convert and recalculate the toolpaths when you switch.