Pausing carving overnight?

In the future I’m looking to do some very long 3D carvings. Over 30 hours based on Vcarve. I live in a residential area and my garage is not sound insulated so I don’t my neighbors would appreciate hearing a loud Makita router and dust collector run all night. I plan on upgrading to a water cooled spindle in the near future but that would still leave the dc.

My question. Is it ok to pause the project at night and then start again in the morning?

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I did it recently without any problems. I paused it then turned the router/vac off. I turned them both back on in the morning.

I do have the latest firmware. I think I read that there were problems doing this with earlier versions.

I also try as much as possible to turn it off (not the controller) in-between tool changes. VCarve makes that easier with their REST approach using multiple tool sizes.

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When you say " turn it off (not the controller) in-between tool changes" do you mean just the router / spindle and dc?

Can you explain the REST approach on Vcarve?

Yes, I turn off just the router and vac. Also, only probe X & Y the first time. Each tool changes after, probe only Z (leave some original material to probe with…).

I always do a roughing toolpath first, using a 1/4" endmill.

Then for the finishing tools paths, you can select multiple ball nose tip sizes, again I start with 1/4" and actually tried as low as a 1/32"… Each size bit gets its own toolpath generated automatically. This way the smaller bits don’t have to take the time for what the larger bits can handle quicker:

3D Finish Toolpath

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I always take a snapshot of the toolpath summary out to the garage with me. I’ve also added the Amana tool number to the tool database, so it prompts me for the correct bit. I need all the help I can get to avoid making mistakes…

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Thanks for the information…I have been wondering this also. Paul

I’ve done it many times. Hit the pause, turn off router, dc and monitor. When you come back the next day, turn on your monitor, dc and router and unpause. You job will continue from where you left off.

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Question for those of you that have paused your work overnight did any of you have a problem of when resuming the carve was slightly lower leaving a obvious line lower mark on the rest of the carve I had had this problem where Charlie showed me how to shut the machine off taking note on what line I stopped and resuming the next day from that line editing the code erasing all prior lines to maybe a hundred lines prior to where I stopped

Because if nobody else had this problem I’m wondering if there was an issue with my machine

If you shut off the machine that is not pausing and resuming, you would need to reprobe your work zero point which could introduce error to the process. Even a very small amount of error could produce a visible line in a carve or a project.

What most people will do is just pause the operation, then shut down only the router and dust collection, then when they resume they turn on the dust collection and router and resume the operation without ever shutting down the Onefinity controller.

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Probably a good thing to turn off the router when you do a tool change.

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Bit settings from the manufactures and software are only placeholders for the feed rates and are not machine specific. You should be using a chip load chart to dial in each of your cuts based on size of bit, flute count, rpm, and material type.
To answer your question about pausing or stopping the project. The major issue with this is when you stop the cut the bit and material will cool down and change positions when you restart its going to leave a line in the project right where it starts.
The software is also not machine specific and those times have to be adjusted to what the machines time says by changing the scaling factor.
I also would try using a larger bit for roughing and finishing unless you have very tiny detail that the bit cannot reach. If you break your project into areas to carve where the larger bits are carving what it can and only use the small bits where needed you can get your times way down. Hope this helps.

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