I dusted off my Carbide 3D Nomad CNC, and tried to cut a part I designed in 3D modeling software. It did not go well.
With a 3D printer, you send the file to a slicer, adjust settings if necessary, and set the part to print.
With a CNC machine, you send the file to CAM software, tell it which tools to use for different operations, and output some code to send to your machine.
First I worked with an older version of Meshcam that I received a license for when I bought my machine.
That didn’t go well, and I found the software a bit clunky to use. Instead of cutting out my part, it took a shallow pass, scratched the surface, and moved on.
Then I tried to use the free version of Fusion CAM, which I’m not very familiar with.
That did not go well either. I ran into origin issues. Once I got that sorted out, I ran it again. The spindle ramped down to make a hole and tried to make cuts that were way too deep.
These issues are a matter of familiarity.
Let me backtrack a moment. I’ve been testing a different light duty benchtop CNC, and wanted to see if my older Carbide 3D Nomad CNC could keep pace.
It didn’t, and that’s at least partially because I have not yet invested enough time into exploring different CAM software packages.
So then what I did was fire up Carbide Create on my laptop. A few seconds later I had a rough design. I then created tool paths within Carbide 3D’s software.
Here’s what I made – a small wooden puck with 6 small holes in an equidistant pattern.
Carbide 3D has a paid Pro version of Carbide Create that adds in more advanced features, but so far I’ve just used the free version.
I didn’t save the test part, but quickly put together something similar.
Carbide Create is actually very intuitive, and works well.
There is a very shallow learning curve when it comes to cutting 2.5D shapes.
2.5D? With the part modeled in the image above, that’s a 2D sketch. Carbide Create’s CAM software lets you cut out different features at different depths. So if we wanted to cut out the wooden puck shape but only drill the holes halfway instead of through the depth, we can do that.
If you want to cut a bevel into your edges, you can do that via a tool path, rather than having to incorporate it into your model.
Not sure how to do that? They have a 60 second tutorial:
Carbide Create provides an easy workflow path for simple parts.
For more complex parts, or parts designed in other software – such as Fusion or Solidworks – there’s a steeper learning curve, but it’s not much different than with other machines.
There’s a lot I don’t like about my Carbide 3D CNC.
But if I recreated my part in Carbide Create, and it definitely would have been possible to, my recent experience probably would have went better. Actually, a lot of my experiences with it might have went better.
Their paid PRO version also allows for STL file imports, which would made things easier. Or, I could have exported my 3D model as a 2D file.
A different company recently offered to send me a review sample of their CNC router. I asked them about the software, and they pretty much just said I could use whatever I wanted. That’s convenient, but also means I’d be on my own in determining which control and CAM software to use.
What I like about Carbide 3D is that they give you some easy-to-use software that helps you get started. Should you want more capabilities – which I certainly do – you can opt to pay for their Pro software, or learn a separate CAM package.
A lot of companies are working on ways to flatten the learning curve, but it seems 3D CNC machining still requires considerable time to learn.
Carbide 3D at least makes 2.5D parts easy to model and create tool paths for.
