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Excellent video. I had this exact problem last week. Your solution is awesome

Yet another inspiring video. Keep up the great work Andy. Appreciate you.

It must be you bro.....I love your camera presence! Ive been in the CNC world and got out of it a few years ago. But now im back and the machines are cheaper and better than ever! Of all the videos I have watched.....I keep coming back to yours. Keep it up and youre killin it !!!

This is a great overview of an initial product production process refinement. Excited to see other tray designs using the same process depending on the time of year.

Thanks for sharing the Vetric tips!

Placing tape strips on perimeter (rather than inset from edges) will help prevent workpiece rocking during milling operations.

It's not uncommon for the finishing path to take deep cuts to even up the edges, especially depending on what bits you're using for both, even when you are correctly setting the cut depth on both toolpaths. You can also remedy this by setting your cut depth by editing the bit from within the toolpath using the edit button -- these edits are "local" to that particular toolpath and bit combo and do not change the global bit settings. You can set the depth of cut for the bit there to something smaller, by default those bits are probably setup to take a pretty deep cut. And yes, this can still happen even if you use the same 0-{full depth} on both the roughing and finishing path. This is even more important if/when you start doing more complex 2.5D or 3D carves. Good luck and thanks for sharing! Also one other thing to watch out for, depending on who's bits your using ... but lately I've seen a LOT of bit databases that you download from manufacturers with super wrong info for the cutting details of the bit! Especially SpeTool -- it's so bad with them that I'm just going to stop using them, I tried to reach out to their support about it and they just keep closing the tickets and just don't seem to care. In the cases I reported they just can't be bothered to put in proper settings for using mm (which I use pretty much exclusively) ... they have been just copying over the same values as imperial (and I can tell you that 100 ipm and 100 mm/min are very different LOL).

Originally I intended to purchase a Shapoko. Listening to the difficulties you keep encountering has convinced me to forget about buying a cnc.

For the finishing toolpath pushing it out, if you're using vcarve I also had the same problem. What I did is offet the main vector inward by a few mm and then re-ran the toolpath. I would then zoom in and make sure that the generated toolpaths lined up with the outtermost line and that would allow the two toolpaths to match up when they ran and stopped it from pushing it out. Sounds a little complicated, but it works lol. If you want I can send a screen recording of doing it later if that'd help!

I've not used Vectric much, but with Carbide Create you can easily add a finishing tool path to the same Gcode. You can greatly reduce the DoC as you're just trying to knock down the machine marks, reduce step over, and increase your speeds, 300IPM+ on my Onefinity.

Rather than screws or double sided tape have you considered composite nails? Avid has a composite nail gun they recommend which I have and really like.

I've not had much luck with the Bits & Bits compression bits. They flat out told me their S&F's are incorrect and need to be re-done. I've since switched over to SkyOne CNC bits which are cheaper and better IME. As for the tray bit, you can set a last depth pass in the toolpath, which makes it a roughing/finishing pass. You cannot change the stepover however. To do that you would need to create a duplicate toolpath with just the full DOC as a single pass to final spec. I use a 3/4" tray bit to do my juice grooves, running 9k RPM, 160IPM, 0.15" DOC. :)

Trays look great! How much did you sell them for at the market?

Great video Andy. What flap disc do you use in your drill press? Thanks, Gary

Have you tried blue painters tape and CA glue? But cover the whole area of the stock with tape.. cover the bed accordingly. CA glue on stock side tape, activator on bed side tape. Worked for me.. As far as your broken bits.. think in ways of less is more.. By that I mean, less stickout of the shank- I try to have 3mm max (1/8), just enough to acount for that kinda cone transition from shank to bit (bowl bit). Same goes for the end mill. *Caution - watch for set depth, so the collet NUT does not hit your stock!* You will notice a lot less tool deflection. Second, which I know might sound expencive (but with some thought ahead..) use bits that have (just) 3-6mm (1/8-1/4) longer flutes than your work piece. Again, will help a lot with tool deflecting less, so less vibrations, stress.. Have a blessed day 🍀

Nice info. What happened to your 1/4" shank bits? Was it the shank failed/sheared off? I've recently started using a VFD spindle, completely different animal to 300w or trim router. Wondering if shanks are mild steel on wide bowl bits and not capable of the speed/torque & impact cutting into sidewalls...but don't get same problems with endmills.

would making french cleats work to hold down the wood for the trays? you'd have to trim the board first which might take some time.

I use vectric for exactly this. Here's how I do the roughing / finishing toolpaths (sorry it's metric)! 1) Setup the roughing toolpath with ''x' passes with large stepover (e.g. 11mm on a 25.7mm bit) and only to cut to the chosen depth minus 0.25mm. E.g. an 18mm depth only goes to 17.75mm. 2) DUPLICATE the roughing toolpath, change the depth to the full distance (e.g. 18mm), the step over to 2mm and the passes to ONE (don't forget to click the set button!) It's fast to setup and never fails. ALso, @09:27 it looks like you have lots of "witness" marks where the tool plunges. In the profile toolpath choose the "Leads" tab and add something like Circular Lead, Radius 10mm / 0.5", Lead Length 10mm / 0.5", Do Lead Out : True, Overcut distance 10mm / 0.5". Do this on ALL passes, roughing and final cut out ands it makes a BIG difference.

Andy can you go more in detail on you path issue you talked about? I have been doing it that way too

In what state are you

You will get no movement if you do a full-depth plunge with a 30-degree ramp for the cutout path with a compression bit.

Your video's are starting to sound like a commercial.