2D milled stool

In this tutorial you will learn how to prepare gcode file for cutting a stool out of plywood plate. What you will need for this tutorial:

• 6mm plywood at least 200x100mm
• CNC PRO toolhead
• 2mm milling cutter (single flute)
• Plywood work table for CNC milling

First of all download .dxf file from this website (on the bottom of the page). Drag and drop it to Voxelizer software (make sure it is up to date by clicking help --> check for updates).

Now you can set all parameters of upcoming milling. If you would like broader explanation, you can find it here. First of all, set travel speed. It is a speed of moves when there is no milling being performed (over the material). Set it to 100-150mm/s. Second parameter that you can set is work speed. It is speed of machine when milling in material. This parameter greatly depends from hardness of material you would like to mill. For plywood work speed of 5-6mm/s should be enough (for harder wood like beech lower it to 4mm/s or less), but you can lower it if you spot incorrect milling.

Next three parameters determine actual milling heights. The first one is travel height - it sets the height on which travel moves will be performed. It is better to set it around 2 or 3mm bigger than total material height. Next, set the material height. If you will attach material using double-sided adhesive tape, set material height to sum of tape thickness and material thickness. For the material used in this tutorial (and attaching it with double sided tape), set the material height to 6mm.

Last two parameters: repeat count and cutting depth determine the depth of cut track. First of them sets number of repetitions of milling. Each repetition will lower the tip of cutter by the value set in cutting depth. The cutting depth is dependent from material hardness. The harder the material, the lower layer should be milled at once. Consequently there should be more repetitions to get the same final height. Plywood we will use in this project can be milled 2mm deep at once, so the repetition count should be set to 3.

Finally you can click GENERATE DRILL PATHS and wait for the gcode to be generated. And then export it, send to machine (external or internal SD) and start milling.

NOTES:

DXF file included in this tutorial also works with different material thickness provided you will use specific mill cutter diameter:

• For 5mm material thickness use 1mm diameter cutter
• For 6mm material thickness use 2mm diameter cutter
• For 7mm material thickness use 3mm diameter cutter