Dealing with depth errors

No Judgement
1

So say I cut a file, and end up with the cut not having been as deep as I intended (maybe I mis-measured the material thickness). What’s the best way to finish that cut? I can adjust the depth in my file and produce new gcode, but is there a quicker way to just alter the depth mechanically, and reuse the same file?

2

with webcontrol you can edit the file on the fly

depending on your cut, you may be able to ust set z=0 a little lower and re-cut
(if you set it too low, it will hit the top of your material as it moves from
one place to the next)

3

another thing you can do is get a flush trim router bit and flip the board over
and trace it from the back side (get one smaller diameter than what you cut ith
ideally)

David Lang

4

Before doing either of these 2 options I’m suggesting below, make sure your home position is the same as it was before your started cutting the previous file:

  1. open your gcode in notepad or word and do a CTRL+H (find-replace) and change out all your depths with something deeper and only run one pass. Delete the rest, upload and cut.

  2. (I’d do this, but it isn’t recommended and could trash your work): rezero your bit to a lower depth, but make sure your travel height will still clear your surface, then recut it with only the z adjustment. (dlang’s suggestion above). alternatively you could edit the file in #1 and just change the travel height rather than the depth.

Do you have the bungee on your router? I had issues with depth before I put it on.

5

As manual solution using a jigsaw with fine tooth blade or dremel tool with spiral bit works very well. The blade/bit follows the cut path very easily and I have fixed whole 8x4 panels in 10 mins. This is much faster then having the Maslow run over the same paths.

3 Likes
6

I don’t have the bungee, I’ll do that as well. Next time it happens, I’ll try the gcode edit.

7

A handy trick I use:

Recently I’ve had quite a bit of pullout - the stringy type (cheap ply) - which raises the sled .2mm or so, when you get to the end of the cut it’s just shy of going all the way through grr

So once finished and sled is back to home, I set the Z .2mm lower and define 0 (NOT HOME, but Z axis zero), then use Z> to go to the end of the gcode; once at the end, I then use <Z to step back to the last Z lower on the BEGINNING of the last pass - then go one more <Z back. If you then hit play, it does the last pass again, but now .2mm deeper (as we changed the Z zero).

I’ve read the can act weirdly, but I’ve yet to have any issue. Maybe it’ll help :slight_smile: has saved my bacon a few times now - really shouldn’t buy the cheap ply…