[gfirebaugh]

My company just bought a Laguna Smartshop 2 (syntec controller) 5x10 router. It's been about 3 years since I used vcarve and I'm having an issue. When I draw a test piece, I set my material thickness (in this case .7245" plywood) , set zero to the top of the material and do my basic toolpaths and export using the laguna supplied post processor. My first couple of attempts resulted in the machine not doing step cuts and just plowing down through the material. Upon inspection of the G code, I dont any thing that looks like it's telling the machine to compensate for the thickness of the material.

Here's the first couple dozen lines of code.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks a ton!
-g

(circle test 1)
(CREATED Wednesday April 03 2024)
( Material Size)
( X= 457.200, Y= 609.600, Z= 18.402)
(Tools used in this file: )
(T4 = End Mill (1/4"))
N6 G00 G17 G71 G40 G49 G80 G90
N7 G54
N8 G53 Z0
N9 (Tool: End Mill (1/4"))
N10 T4 M06
N11 M03 S17000
N12 G43 H4 Z38.1000
N13 G00 X228.6000 Y78.1050 Z38.1000
N14 G00 Z5.0800
N15 G01 Z0.0000 F431.8
N16 G01 X228.8761 Y78.0849 Z-0.0087
N17 G01 X229.1597 Y78.0209 Z-0.0177
N18 G01 X229.4406 Y77.9095 Z-0.0272
N19 G01 X229.7070 Y77.7503 Z-0.0369
N20 G01 X229.9470 Y77.5470 Z-0.0467
N21 G01 X230.1503 Y77.3070 Z-0.0565
N22 G01 X230.3095 Y77.0406 Z-0.0662
N23 G01 X230.4209 Y76.7597 Z-0.0757
N24 G01 X230.4849 Y76.4761 Z-0.0848

[routalot]

Machine datum set to table surface would be the first thing to check.I don't know the Syntec controller well as I've only seen a basic version on a machine that displayed the real time coordinates of the tool.If the controller is more sophisticated and shows the G54 values you should move the tool close to the job and see what position is indicated.It may be as simple as telling the controller that the job datum is 0.7245" above the table.A screenshot of the controller would be a great help.The alternative is to set the job datum to zero in Vcarve and to begin the cut at 0.7245" and this approach causes anguish in lots of cases,even though it works.So I suggest reading the machine manual to see how it recommends inputting a G54 Z value to determine job datum.The hurdle you may find is that batches of material are seldom uniform in thickness and a few weeks in any workshop can change the thickness in any case.I have seen 25mm MFC that was 26.8mm after storage in a building in a river valley.If you are cutting panels it is easiest to set the job datum at the nominal thickness of the material above the table surface.Good luck.