CAM Considerations for more efficient carving? (Fusion3600

Hey guys, Im cutting into my first project (WOOHOO!) which is a mountain range carved into solid walnut. I’m using fusion 360 and the estimated machine time is shoring as 50 minutes and yet the machine is telling m “nope… this is gonna take 3.5 hrs.”

Im ok with longer times here and there but I want to be sure I am managing the cuts properly.

The piece is 6x6" and about 1 inch of carving depth.
I decided to use a 1/4" flat end compression for the roughing pass which I am using tthe adaptive clearing process on F360.
Then I am doing a smoothing pass with a 1/4" ball end… and THEN
a smoothing pass with a 0.5mm ball end tapered bit.

  1. Am I overdoing the number of tools? If so, what tools would you use?
  2. What would you recommend for stepdown (fine and max)
  3. How do I get a more accurate estimate of my machining time with Fusion 360 so I dont have to guesstimate until it is uploaded to my machine?

See this for context,

Basically Fusion360 “personal edition” exports “slowed down” version of code.
Hence the discrepancy between Fusion360 simulation and your OF controller.

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I have the paid subscription and dont see that in my GCode.

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Strange, try importing into CAMotics on your PC and see what it shows you for the estimate.

I have a mac. where in the program does it tell me the estimated time?

Also to note (cause Im wondering if this is the problem) I attempted to make all 3 tools under the same setup and output each nc gode individually. Does Fusion 360 automatically lump together all toolpaths under the same setup into one .nc file?

From the menu, View → Full Layout
Then on the right you will see the time estimates and other vitals.

Splitting tool paths shouldn’t explode the time…

yeah… the toolpath is saying 58 minutes CAMotics. Controller is saying 3hrs 38min