This project is trivially small and I’m sure most of the participants on this forum could do this in an hour, it took me 4 and a lot of will power. I got very defeated last year and built up a huge amount of dread for the 1F. I spent most of the winter renovating the shop in one way or another. I finally got my ATC to work right after messing with it on and off for about 3 mos last year. Then I realized I remounted my spindle too high to get the bit to contact the workpiece. This evening I nearly ran away in defeat because one of those cuts on my Cup 1 of the ATC were from tonight’s tool pocket test. However I preserved and used my Slim Jenny in pocket 4 to cut the gasket….hey a long story to say, hopefully I can build some self confidence in myself and working with this machine and make something cool out of wood or aluminum soon!
Hey, it looks like you have the basics pretty much down. I would suspect the material you are cutting is a soft almost rubbery material for a gasket? This might be a really tough go even for someone with a good amount of experience. Soft rubbery material would want to grip the bit and twist and pull. I have never tried something like this just for that reason, but you do have a couple options that come to mind. Donek makes a drag knife that would probably make short work of this (or something similar to the Donek drag knife). Again, I have never tried this, but if I ended up with the results you are seeing, I might try and sandwich the gasket material between two hard boards and try to cut it out that way. I know how frustrating the CNC learning curve can be. Don’t be afraid…chances of you breaking anything other than a bit are pretty low…the more you run it, the easier it will become…make some mistakes, have fun, and most importantly, try to keep the carbide out of your forehead lol…keep trying!
Thanks for the response. I’ve watched that Drag Knife demo on Tools Today a half a dozen times. I have cut leather with my 1F and JTech laser two years ago, but I didn’t get the 1F for these reasons. I’ve also invested heavily in this hobby and haven’t always enjoyed it. I bought a low price 29 gallon air compressor and these gaskets aren’t something I’ll cut regularly or it would be a great use case for the drag knife.
I was going to say a laser would be a great way to cut those, but I didn’t want to recommend a $1000-2000 fix. If you have a laser I would absolutely try that.
I made these gaskets for my lawn mower sometime over the summer after destroying the original while removing the carburetor. They’re cut with a laser. The paper gasket (bottom) is a clean cut but the other one (top) is a rubbery, cork like material. Not as clean but still worked very well. I found a picture of the gasket on the internet, downloaded it, imported it to Vectric and scaled it to size. You can find gasket material at any automotive parts supply.
My artistic ability is a total zero. Flunked stickman 101 in second grade and never improved beyond that. Kudos to those who can bring their imaginative artistic ideas to life on their CNC’s. When I acquired my CNC, the idea was to help replace the many jigs and fixtures that woodworkers seem to accumulate over time…some of which take a considerable amount of time to make, sometimes only used once and can occupy lots of precious limited space. Coming from the computer field where I was the head digit for several years, having a CNC became the perfect marriage of computer skills, woodworking and other ways of finding practical solutions to various problems.
To Jim Childers… Don’t be intimidated by your CNC. Making mistakes is part of learning and there will be a day when your confidence will soar and you’ll know your CNC like the back of your hand. What you’re experiencing now is something that’s happened to everyone in their beginning times.
Nice work.
I would never have thought to try cutting a gasket with the machine.
The ingenuity of use of all the folks on this forum has so far been an unending source of surprise and happiness for me. Yes, I will be adopting (stealing) a lot of other folks ideas and having some raw gasket material on hand for the odd ball project/repair here and there is now on the list.
As others have said, keep making stuff, and well, you’re going to break stuff. I’ve already killed about $120 worth of Jenny bits… lesson learned there, buy some cheap bits that don’t have a long wear life, because they’re not going to last long enough to wear out! 
FWIW, I use the Jenny bits in another router and I’ve really enjoyed their longevity and quality of cut, can I find some other ones that wear as well a bit cheaper made some place else, sure. But Cadence Design’s bit have never failed me, I’ve only ever failed them, LOL, so worth the money in my mind (well, once I get a better handle on using the 1F).
Honestly, failure is success. I’ve learned so much more from my mistakes (and am thankful I still have all 10 fingers to type this with) than I’ve ever learned from my successes.
So, in short, go break some stuff (other than yourself), it can be fixed, though sometimes we don’t like the cost, I guarantee the more expensive the mistake, the bigger the, as my management teacher taught me a long time ago, “Significant Emotion Event”, sucks in the moment, but a lesson that tends to be remembered.
Keep at it, you’ve got this.
After thinking about my response above, I dialed in my JTech and used a whole sheet of 11x15 gasket material to get two very good gaskets(actually 3). Then I tackled the other side in my first pass. From taking the photo on a scaled craft pad, to using ChatGPT to clean up the image to a jpeg then import to vectric and cut two perfect gaskets. I broke one gasket while reinstalling and cut a third with not drama. My air compressor I bought for $120 from an auction went from a 50 minute fill time to 7:55, better than factory specs!
I needed this CNC win. I do truly know I can do this but it is daunting
An idea that may help… I use the cardboard inserts that come in packages of wet cat food to laser cut samples before I commit to the expensive stuff. They’re just pieces of 5x7.5” cardboard. Any cardboard or stiff paper product will work. That way you can cut trial pieces to test the fit of your gasket. You can make adjustments and repeat as many times as required. Once you’re satisfied with your trial, you can cut the final piece with real gasket material.
If you don’t have any cats, I can send you a few, then you can collect your own cardboard. 
Just spit-balling but would it work to sandwich the gasket material between two pieces of wood when cutting it? I’m not sure how you would clamp it, but it might help hold the material in place and result in cleaner cuts.
That’s an excellent idea!
This has been a really fun adventure to watch!