Flute Toolpath usage

[NewAgent45]

I’m looking for a way to cut a trough in a checker board table for storing the checkers. My idea is to stand them on edge and the approximate dimensions are 1.5 dia. x ½.
The plan for the trough is a trough with a radius of 0.75 and 0.5 deep in the table top. I created to a tool path in VCP 8 for this using the fluting toolpath and a ½ ball nose bit as follows.

1. I drew a single line 6.125 inch long
2. With this line selected I used the array copy tool to create 19 lines spaced 0.050 apart
3. Then I determined the depth of each of ten fluting paths. I just did a side view drawing in VCP and measured the segment lengths.

Checker Flute Depth Drawing.crv

Flute Depth

(150.5 KiB) Downloaded 294 times

4. When then working from the outer edge we created a fluting tool path for each pair of lines except for the center one was used in the last.
5. Since the same tool is used for all these toolpaths we can select all of them and combine them into one TAP file.

See the attached picture showing a close-up of the results in the simulation. I think this will be adequate for my usage. I know I could use smaller increments between the vectors to get a smoother finish. I think this will be adequate for my usage.
This is my first time using the fluting toolpath and I have not seen it used like this before. I have to ask is there is a better way using my existing tools? I know If I had the full version of Sketchup I could easily create a 3D export for this.

Fluting trough

Fluting trough close-up

We learning something new every day! All comments and recommendations are welcome.

.... Rod

[4DThinker]

Well done, Rod. I used the same strategy, only inverted to help a student of mine lower cut times from 3hrs for a 3D cut to 15 minutes for profile/fluting cuts to put a bullnose edge on her rocking chair rocker halves.

In many cases I've found the fluting toolpath and an array of lines the most efficient way to solve a 3D challenge than the 3D roughing and smoothing toolpaths in Aspire or cut3D.

4D

[NewAgent45]

Update:

For the depth drawing I meant to attach the picture and not the whole CRV file. My bad!

See the attached picture....

[NewAgent45]

Success Up-date!
Still being a novice I’d like to hear your comments especially if there is an easier way. This method takes some time to create the toolpaths (20) because each toolpath increments in depth. You must be careful to select the right pair of vectors for each toolpath (20).

I decided that my original plan of 10 fluting toolpaths with 0.050” steps would be too aggressive. We increased to 20 steps incrementing 0.025 inch (x) per step. See the Fluting parameters shown in the picture below.

Fluting Parameters

I included pictures from the simulation. If you compare to the original pictures in the original post you can see the expected improvement with more steps. I also included pictures of the test carve.

Simulation

Results

I hope this post has value for someone else. Have a great day!

…. Rod