Doing my first V Carve ever, I mostly do relief carving but decided to test a V Carve. I set up my 60 degree V Bit and when I go to probe all three axis (XYZ) I need to enter the probe tool information. What data should I be entering for a V Bit that’s 60 degrees, or a 90 degree V Bit for that matter?
JENN
He using a vbit, you just need to probe for z and manually set x and y.
You can probe X,Y,Z with a 1/4" endmill bit then swap to the v-bit and just probe Z to account for the new bit length.
Awesome, the value defaults to 6.35mm, I probed with the actual v bit without errors. Any harm in doing it this way?
JENN
You cannot probe x,y a vbit, as the tip of the v never touches the probe, so it will never have the correct offset for xy. Probe with a strait endmill (or just set by eye) for xy. Then reprobe for height with probe z only using the v bit.
Exactly shat 1FCNC said. I xyz with a 1/8 EM bit and then swap with V and re-zero the Z. Have never had great luck with eyeballing xy, but my eyes are bad nowadays. Have seen some folks flip the Endmill upside down so you have solid surface all the way around for XY. (Great reason to keep around an old dull/broken bits as a Vbit xy setter/candidate)
Good reaffirmation Dean, I actually did X,Y,Z with the 60 degree V Bit, and did not suffer any harsh consequences. I dunno, dumb luck maybe. My V Carve Test was successful, it was nothing to brag about, just a name on a piece of Pine…
Thanks
JENN
The V-bit will work however it’s not going to provide an accurate X and Y coordinate for you if you really need precision. If you’re ok with +/- 1/8" accuracy on the X and Y use the v-bit. If you’re trying to center a carving on a woodworking project you previously built, I’d probe with a round endmill or use the point of the v-bit to align by eye, it will be more accurate.
I gotcha, sounds good. Will adhere to proper ways of doing things.
Thank you guys!
JENN
Jenn,
You can see based on these two 60 degree V bits where you could have a problem probing. The one that is machined out of the 1/4" tooling should probe properly because the sharpened area is short and the straight portion will contact the probe on the sides. The larger cutter would not contact the probe properly on the sides and thus would not be accurate. This is when you would use just a 1/4" end mill to probe X & Y. The Z will probe properly with either.
Hope this clarifies for you…
While we’re on the topic, one could argue that using a endmill is also not a proper way to probe as they’re not round, only the cutting edges are. If you take the end view of a 2 flute endmill and draw a circle around it like below (in green) you can see there are points (red arrows) where error can be introduced vs if it the flute touches the probe (blue arrows). Due to the nature of probing X and Y, you are touching 2 surfaces that are at a 90 degree angle, with a 2 flute endmill where the flutes are 180 degrees from each other you are assured one of the ‘touches’ will not be on a flute. For most projects this error is insignificant on smaller bits (1/4" and less) but something to be aware of if you’re looking for precision.
This is correct I should have said a spiral endmill. With a straight flute you could rotate it so the cutting edge would touch the probe in the X direction then a quarter turn to touch on the Y.
Ron, you nailed it. There lies the reason why my probing gave me positive results. I am using the white side 1541 v groove. Nice!
Thanks Ron!
JENN
You’re welcome! Happy to help
For X and Y you must use an Endmill not a V Bit. So put a Endmill in the Router or Spindle 1st then probe X,Y and Z, then remove the Endmill and replace it with the V Bit and re-probe the Z only. You are now ready to cut. What ever Endmill you use tha twill be the size you put in the probe tool info.
Great example, of how we can fool ourselves into thinking we are still good, when it is more dumb luck… LOL
A 1 1/2" surfacing bit will not work with the probe either… quick draw on the e-stop.
If it works with the ‘paper method’ then I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with the probe?
Z works ok. With X/Y, I had changed the diameter but it didn’t go out past the block far enough before it started coming down?
Keep in mind you are trying to X, Y zero the center of the router collet. So once again with the over sized cutters (large V bits, surface bits, etc.) it is best to use a 1/4" shank V bit upside down in the collet to zero X Y.
