I am an American boy from Brooklyn, just about to enjoy 🙂my 87th birthday, and just starting CNC with 3018 Pro that I updated to 3040 following your video instructions. Your videos are superlative! Your instructions and language skills combined with super video productions. Amazing, Thank you very much from Virginia, USA
My sentiments exactly. It's not over till it's over (learning milling at 77, although CIM/robotics expert in a former life). After 40 years in Germany, I love your Brummy accent, although never did while living in the UK)
Absolutely brilliant tutorial - thanks so much for this, I'm very new to it but I've been struggling with Easel and CNC routing generally for ages. This has answered pretty much all of my questions and simplified everything. Very good presentation. Many thanks James Dean Designs !
I've watched all your videos about CNC and your explanations are on point and easy to follow. Do you think you could do a beginners guide for Carveco Maker?
@@JamesDeanDesigns so I have been having issues with converting my stuff from Carveco to a gfile and then getting it to carve with using Candle. Do you think you could add that into that tutorial.
Good Day James..First I want to tell you that I have found your tutorial videos incredibly helpful as I've begun my journey into hobby CNC. I tried to make the puzzle and have a question regarding the tabs that hold the puzzle cutout in place. I assume that I require a waste board underneath so that for the part that is cut through it will cut into the waste board? Correct. I hope I'm making sense. Keep up the great content!
Thank you. I received a 3019 as a gift about a year ago. It has sat with nothing made outside of the test files until I watched your videos. Within an hour I had my first project being produced.
Can you explain why you have the depth per pass as .4 mm? I'm working on my first project and it says that it will take over 10 hours to mill it out. That is if I follow your cut settings.
I'm generally conservative with my settings, you can go faster, you can go deeper but it depends on your machine and how comfortable you are with the settings
When trying to select Automatic under general settings is not giving me choice of selecting Automatic, only MANUAL and HARDWARE :( Also when trying to download G Code , shows that I need to purchase the pro subscription
They made more update. You have to go into hardware and setup your machine profile, in there you can select automatic. If it shows you need to purchase pro then it is likely because you have used a Pro feature
I just got a 3018 and a complete newbie. I went to Easel web sight and it appears they only offer subscription based software. I could not find the free version. Am I not looking in the right place?
Awesome I love all of your videos and I am going to get started with my engraving when the colder weather arrives here in Windsor Ontario Canada as a winter project. I have been redoing my backyard living space this summer.
Thanks Daniele. Had the pleasure of visiting Ontario a few years ago, stayed with some friends in Toronto. Beautiful country but I do not envy your winters :)
Hi there, I have spent ages watching this and trying to get machine to do it right, anyway I have followed everything exactly as you have shown, and finally I have it working as it should, there is one problem though, the drill bit is NOT going into the wood, it is doing all the moves in the right place, just not engraving, any suggestions, have I missed something ?😐
I really enjoy watching your videos. Very entertaining as well as informative. I watched the first video in this series and had questions on how to do something so I watched the second and there were the answers. Thanks again.
Hi, I have followed your tutorial to the letter, but I am having a problem with the carving. When the carving begins it seems fine, but after a few minutes it seems to go off track and starts to carve where it should not. I can’t figure out what the problem is? Cheers Trevor
Might be losing steps if cutting too deep or too fast. Also sometimes if the USB cable is close to the power cable it can cause interference making it to odd things
@@JamesDeanDesigns Hi, I set up the machine exactly as you did on the tutorial (speed and depth), also I am using Oak the same as you used. I did notice that it keeps disconnecting when I catch the cable which is plugged into the Laptop, not sure if this would cause the problem? Cheers Trevor
If the diameter is 200mm for example, then create a work area that is 200 x 200 and draw a circle in it to give you a guide to work within. Then set the job to start from the centre, here is a video showing how it's done ua-cam.com/video/Pmqu2XwlhTY/v-deo.html
I use the offline controller and do setup in esal motor works as shud turn off now wen asked thru pc turn off with the test file after engrave bit wen I make my own files in easil dawnload the Gcode do the engrave but not turn motor off wen finished
Hi James, I use easel pro on a laptop with Microsoft 11 and I am using a Yorahome 3036. When I carve words on a wood sign my letters are always much too close together and it causes them to chip out the wood in between the letters of the word no matter if I use a spiral bit or v groove bit. Is there any way to fix this? Am I able to change the spacing between the letters in my easel software or is this something I can change in the computer itself? I really enjoy your videos and thanks for any assistance.
I dont think you can adjust font spacing like that in Easel. You can do it in something like Inkskape and then import the SVG back into Easel. Alternatively try using a smaller bit and it may help. If its softwood as well like pine then it has a higher tendencies to do that
My preference is both :) but I know that doesnt help. Quite a few people have asked this and reality is both machines can do a lot of similar things. The easiest way I can help steer decisions is if you like to do laser work then I would say the 4040 will be better, belt drive can accelerate faster which is better for laser work. On the opposite side if you plan to machine harder stuff like aluminium then the 4030 has a stronger frame and screw drive which is better for that heavier work.
Mr. Dean, you sir should be in charge of Easels tutorials. This video just answered a ton of questions for me, so a huge thank you for that. I am now a subscriber for what ever you want to throw at me for Easel and let me add that the info you gave on the other guys ( V-carve, Carve Co Maker) was informative and excellent as well. I wish I would have found you sooner. Keep up the excellent work and again thanks for sharing!
Hi, as many others have said, thanks very much for all of your videos. They’re a real life saver. Quick question though, how do you tell Easel that you’re using a laser instead of a spindle (for engraving but especially for cutting)? I’ve watched many videos, with no joy. The Easel forum certainly mentions laser cutting. But the best I’ve found is that you select a drill bit in Easel as normal, export the GRBL code and then manually change the "spindle on/off" codes to "laser on/off". For software which comes at some cost, that seems more than a little clunky to me. Any guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated.
So basically Easel still thinks it's running a spindle if that makes sense, it's not really designed for laser. The article below covers how to do this but if I'm honest, I would strongly suggest buying lightburn, its much easier, fast and certainly more powerful www.inventables.com/projects/laser-engraving-with-easel
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks very much for your quick reply. I read the article but wasn’t able to apply it to Easel successfully. The cuts I want to make are quite simple and I could probably use a standard spindle and drill bit easily enough. It’s just that a laser looks bad-ass and I’ve always wanted to be a Bond villain. To that end, I’ve downloaded Lightburn and am working my way through it. If you’re planning on getting an affiliate link for Lightburn please let me know - ideally within the next 29.5 days if at all possible. Cheers.
James thank you very much from original Proverxl 4030 set up; upgrade and switching to UGS and Carveco Maker. ;-)) Two questions; How important is tramming? Second used Easel pro and UGS to design star union and then to cut out inlay circle. Each of the stars had cut error in same spot on star(not apparent in easel view) and circle had two bump in the circumference opposite each other both on inlay and hole. Not at step over spot. May I assume it is a soft ware issue and not a machine issue? Thank you again for your professional and factual presentations that are greatly appreciated!!
Hi. Tramming is very important especially when using larger bit. Less so with things like small V but at the end of the day the more tuned an accurate your machine is, the better results you will get. Sometime you can get anomalies that you can see on screen. I had an issue a while ago where I kept getting little notches in lettering. Visualisations didn't show them but when I converted the text to outlines and looked ad the nodes, you could see one node was slightly out of place. Might be the same here. Are you drawing the shapes in Easel or importing them as SVGs?
@@JamesDeanDesigns James thank you very much for the reply. I copied and pasted the star from others flag union then copy and pasted the rest of the stars. Think there was some glitch in that star which was just multiply by the copy and pasting. Learned how to make my own stars. ;-(( :-))) after making first star union. Such is the nature of newby's . Not sure about the circle inlay. have not tried again. Will Tram up spindle as soon as I get back to shop. Again thank you and do appreciate your reply and more you logistical approach to video production. I find saddly to many use their platform as a vehicle to talk rather than convey information.
Hi there, Can you possibly do an update to generating the G-Code in easel as a non-pro user please? I go to the machine function, hit generate G-Code and it just tells me I need to subscribe. Or does this mean that there are no usable functions on Easel unless you subscribe?
1 of 2 things are happening. It makes you think you need to subscribe but there is usually a button to continue past it and export your stuff. Or the alternative is you have selected a tool or something which is part of the Pro option and therefore its saying you need to upgrade because of that
@@JamesDeanDesigns Ah ok, that makes sense as I have selected a 90 deg V bit. Thank you. Is there a way around this at all as I am wanting to engrave a house number into slate?
Question: Easel uses "negative Z, positive X, Y", whereas the 3018 (and most CNCs) uses "negative X,Y,Z" - how are you accounting for this? If you take your design and generate the gcode, you can clearly see that all the G0,G1 XY commands will be positive, which is bad.
Hi John, Why do you believe it is bad? I have a collection of CNC router and laser machines and they all work in both positive an negative coordinates depending on the setup. If you home your machine to the top right, when ever you job back into the work area that will be negative, but most people start their jobs from the bottom left of their material and that will result in positive movements (with the exception of the Z)
@@JamesDeanDesigns Hi James - I see, so are you suggesting that anyone using Easel should home to the bottom-left, and not to the top-right? Let me tell you my 'workaround': I home to the top-right on my machine, as usual, and in Easel, I set the (0,0) home position using the 5 dots to the top-right. This effectively moves the entire design _out of the scope of the board_ in Easel, so you won't get a preview anymore. This 'forces' Easel to generate negative X and Y values. Of course, I only do this after I'm done the design (so I can see the preview), right before I want to generate the gcode.
@@johnfaustus1 It sounds like you are using the homing function as a replacement for the zero function. So I design in easel normally and export the code. Then on the machine you run the home sequence, this lets the machine know a fixed position. Jog to the bottom left corner of your material, lower the Z down to touch the top of the material, press the Zero button and then start the job. There is no need to worry about positive and negative coordinates this way.
Great tutorial thanks, I will be doing acrylic cutting so would like to know more about how to do that as I understand getting the speed right is important so as not to melt the plastic and snapping the bits
Yes thats correct. I used a 2 flute 1/8th end mill and If Im 100% honest, this was the first time I had cut acrylic so it was a bit of a guess. Most common tool seems to be a O flute bit for cutting
I am an American boy from Brooklyn, just about to enjoy 🙂my 87th birthday, and just starting CNC with 3018 Pro that I updated to 3040 following your video instructions. Your videos are superlative! Your instructions and language skills combined with super video productions. Amazing, Thank you very much from Virginia, USA
My sentiments exactly. It's not over till it's over (learning milling at 77, although CIM/robotics expert in a former life). After 40 years in Germany, I love your Brummy accent, although never did while living in the UK)
Awesome mate, really appreciate that you stuck with the 3018 to demo this.
the 3018 is what got me most of my subscribers so I'm trying to keep making videos on it as well as doing bits on the other machines as well.
Just got a 3018 so cheers for all these videos, very helpful
Enjoy the machine 👍
This was a extremely good tutorial. Keep up the good work. Greetings from the caribbean!
Thank you 🙏 glad it helped
Absolutely brilliant tutorial - thanks so much for this, I'm very new to it but I've been struggling with Easel and CNC routing generally for ages. This has answered pretty much all of my questions and simplified everything. Very good presentation. Many thanks James Dean Designs !
Excellent. Glad its helped
Great intro guide tutorial! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I've watched all your videos about CNC and your explanations are on point and easy to follow. Do you think you could do a beginners guide for Carveco Maker?
Its something I have on my list to get done in the new year
@@JamesDeanDesigns so I have been having issues with converting my stuff from Carveco to a gfile and then getting it to carve with using Candle. Do you think you could add that into that tutorial.
Excellent!! Thank you!
Thanks - that was helpful
Good Day James..First I want to tell you that I have found your tutorial videos incredibly helpful as I've begun my journey into hobby CNC. I tried to make the puzzle and have a question regarding the tabs that hold the puzzle cutout in place. I assume that I require a waste board underneath so that for the part that is cut through it will cut into the waste board? Correct. I hope I'm making sense. Keep up the great content!
Thank you. I received a 3019 as a gift about a year ago. It has sat with nothing made outside of the test files until I watched your videos. Within an hour I had my first project being produced.
Excellent. Gkad it's helped 😁
Hi James could you do a video on a TTC450 two trees cnc machine . THANKS
Good tutorial! could write configuration for acrylic and the thickness? thank you!
Think I went about 0.5mm per pass but upped the speed to 800mm/min if I remember correctly
Can you explain why you have the depth per pass as .4 mm? I'm working on my first project and it says that it will take over 10 hours to mill it out. That is if I follow your cut settings.
I'm generally conservative with my settings, you can go faster, you can go deeper but it depends on your machine and how comfortable you are with the settings
When trying to select Automatic under general settings is not giving me choice of selecting Automatic, only MANUAL and HARDWARE :(
Also when trying to download G Code , shows that I need to purchase the pro subscription
They made more update. You have to go into hardware and setup your machine profile, in there you can select automatic. If it shows you need to purchase pro then it is likely because you have used a Pro feature
I just got a 3018 and a complete newbie. I went to Easel web sight and it appears they only offer subscription based software. I could not find the free version. Am I not looking in the right place?
I just set up an Easel account. Click on start free trial and sign up, once the Pro free trial ends you can still use the basic features.
Great jobb and explenation. Love these projects from a-z. Learn a lot more watching you.
Thank you 👍
Well done JD. Good tutorial and nice design. I picked up a few tips that I didn’t know about
Excellent. Glad its helped
Awesome I love all of your videos and I am going to get started with my engraving when the colder weather arrives here in Windsor Ontario Canada as a winter project. I have been redoing my backyard living space this summer.
Thanks Daniele. Had the pleasure of visiting Ontario a few years ago, stayed with some friends in Toronto. Beautiful country but I do not envy your winters :)
Hi there, I have spent ages watching this and trying to get machine to do it right, anyway I have followed everything exactly as you have shown, and finally I have it working as it should, there is one problem though, the drill bit is NOT going into the wood, it is doing all the moves in the right place, just not engraving, any suggestions, have I missed something ?😐
Very cool, I especially liked how you used the ball bearings to fill MAZE.
Excellent Tutorial!!
you are not showing how to import a jpeg or svg picture into easel i tried and doesnt seem to work can you be more specific?
I really enjoy watching your videos. Very entertaining as well as informative. I watched the first video in this series and had questions on how to do something so I watched the second and there were the answers. Thanks again.
Hi,
I have followed your tutorial to the letter, but I am having a problem with the carving.
When the carving begins it seems fine, but after a few minutes it seems to go off track and starts to carve where it should not.
I can’t figure out what the problem is?
Cheers
Trevor
Might be losing steps if cutting too deep or too fast. Also sometimes if the USB cable is close to the power cable it can cause interference making it to odd things
@@JamesDeanDesigns Hi, I set up the machine exactly as you did on the tutorial (speed and depth), also I am using Oak the same as you used.
I did notice that it keeps disconnecting when I catch the cable which is plugged into the Laptop, not sure if this would cause the problem?
Cheers
Trevor
Please teach us how to use v-carve, or any related software, so that we can't take our project to the next level
I will be. I'm just getting a few bits done on Easel and then moving onto Carveco Maker and doing a beginners series on that
@@JamesDeanDesigns thanks, I just can't wait for u to get the beginner's guide tutorial, to come out
What settings amd bit did you use to CNC the acrylic plate?
Brilliant! I'm so much looking forward to having my machine in a few weeks. How long was the carving time all together?
What do you use for the sacrificial bed for cuts that go fully through your project?
MDF. Easy and cheap. Here is a video for it
ua-cam.com/video/cU50YbPNpvo/v-deo.html
Hello James. I have question about the round pieces . How I engrave on it.i hope you answer my question
If the diameter is 200mm for example, then create a work area that is 200 x 200 and draw a circle in it to give you a guide to work within. Then set the job to start from the centre, here is a video showing how it's done
ua-cam.com/video/Pmqu2XwlhTY/v-deo.html
@@JamesDeanDesigns thanks so much. Your channel is my guide since I bought and build my own 3018 pro. I appreciated your manner and kindness
Hi m8 plz can I help my mottor won’t stop spinning wen it after the ruffing cut so can change the bit for the detailed cut
In the console box type m5 and hit enter
I use the offline controller and do setup in esal motor works as shud turn off now wen asked thru pc turn off with the test file after engrave bit wen I make my own files in easil dawnload the Gcode do the engrave but not turn motor off wen finished
Hi James, I use easel pro on a laptop with Microsoft 11 and I am using a Yorahome 3036. When I carve words on a wood sign my letters are always much too close together and it causes them to chip out the wood in between the letters of the word no matter if I use a spiral bit or v groove bit. Is there any way to fix this? Am I able to change the spacing between the letters in my easel software or is this something I can change in the computer itself? I really enjoy your videos and thanks for any assistance.
I dont think you can adjust font spacing like that in Easel. You can do it in something like Inkskape and then import the SVG back into Easel. Alternatively try using a smaller bit and it may help. If its softwood as well like pine then it has a higher tendencies to do that
cnc machine
Hi great videos. Have you a preference between the Prover 4030 and the FoxAlien 4040
My preference is both :) but I know that doesnt help. Quite a few people have asked this and reality is both machines can do a lot of similar things. The easiest way I can help steer decisions is if you like to do laser work then I would say the 4040 will be better, belt drive can accelerate faster which is better for laser work. On the opposite side if you plan to machine harder stuff like aluminium then the 4030 has a stronger frame and screw drive which is better for that heavier work.
Mr. Dean, you sir should be in charge of Easels tutorials. This video just answered a ton of questions for me, so a huge thank you for that. I am now a subscriber for what ever you want to throw at me for Easel and let me add that the info you gave on the other guys ( V-carve, Carve Co Maker) was informative and excellent as well. I wish I would have found you sooner. Keep up the excellent work and again thanks for sharing!
Thank you. I'm glad it has helped
Thanks a mine of information very well presented. You have got me started with my new machine.
Thank you very much 🙏
If you cant get epoxy, you could use coloured hotmelt glue sticks and a hot air gun.
Sure, you could even melt wax crayons if you like
Hi, as many others have said, thanks very much for all of your videos. They’re a real life saver.
Quick question though, how do you tell Easel that you’re using a laser instead of a spindle (for engraving but especially for cutting)? I’ve watched many videos, with no joy.
The Easel forum certainly mentions laser cutting. But the best I’ve found is that you select a drill bit in Easel as normal, export the GRBL code and then manually change the "spindle on/off" codes to "laser on/off". For software which comes at some cost, that seems more than a little clunky to me.
Any guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated.
So basically Easel still thinks it's running a spindle if that makes sense, it's not really designed for laser. The article below covers how to do this but if I'm honest, I would strongly suggest buying lightburn, its much easier, fast and certainly more powerful
www.inventables.com/projects/laser-engraving-with-easel
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks very much for your quick reply. I read the article but wasn’t able to apply it to Easel successfully.
The cuts I want to make are quite simple and I could probably use a standard spindle and drill bit easily enough. It’s just that a laser looks bad-ass and I’ve always wanted to be a Bond villain. To that end, I’ve downloaded Lightburn and am working my way through it.
If you’re planning on getting an affiliate link for Lightburn please let me know - ideally within the next 29.5 days if at all possible.
Cheers.
James thank you very much from original Proverxl 4030 set up; upgrade and switching to UGS and Carveco Maker. ;-)) Two questions; How important is tramming? Second used Easel pro and UGS to design star union and then to cut out inlay circle. Each of the stars had cut error in same spot on star(not apparent in easel view) and circle had two bump in the circumference opposite each other both on inlay and hole. Not at step over spot. May I assume it is a soft ware issue and not a machine issue? Thank you again for your professional and factual presentations that are greatly appreciated!!
Hi. Tramming is very important especially when using larger bit. Less so with things like small V but at the end of the day the more tuned an accurate your machine is, the better results you will get. Sometime you can get anomalies that you can see on screen. I had an issue a while ago where I kept getting little notches in lettering. Visualisations didn't show them but when I converted the text to outlines and looked ad the nodes, you could see one node was slightly out of place. Might be the same here. Are you drawing the shapes in Easel or importing them as SVGs?
@@JamesDeanDesigns James thank you very much for the reply. I copied and pasted the star from others flag union then copy and pasted the rest of the stars. Think there was some glitch in that star which was just multiply by the copy and pasting. Learned how to make my own stars. ;-(( :-))) after making first star union. Such is the nature of newby's . Not sure about the circle inlay. have not tried again. Will Tram up spindle as soon as I get back to shop. Again thank you and do appreciate your reply and more you logistical approach to video production. I find saddly to many use their platform as a vehicle to talk rather than convey information.
What do you mean zed pro mate?
Hi there, Can you possibly do an update to generating the G-Code in easel as a non-pro user please? I go to the machine function, hit generate G-Code and it just tells me I need to subscribe.
Or does this mean that there are no usable functions on Easel unless you subscribe?
1 of 2 things are happening. It makes you think you need to subscribe but there is usually a button to continue past it and export your stuff. Or the alternative is you have selected a tool or something which is part of the Pro option and therefore its saying you need to upgrade because of that
@@JamesDeanDesigns Ah ok, that makes sense as I have selected a 90 deg V bit. Thank you.
Is there a way around this at all as I am wanting to engrave a house number into slate?
Thanks so much for these tutorials. They've really made a newbie like me feel more confident in getting started.
Glad they've helped 👍
I am doing this project tonight. But i have the stock spindle. should i cut the feed rate 1/2?
See how you go. Maybe take it down 10-20%. Let me know how you get on
@@JamesDeanDesigns will do, first time cutting hard wood. Good news is i have plenty of bits :)
Question: Easel uses "negative Z, positive X, Y", whereas the 3018 (and most CNCs) uses "negative X,Y,Z" - how are you accounting for this?
If you take your design and generate the gcode, you can clearly see that all the G0,G1 XY commands will be positive, which is bad.
Hi John, Why do you believe it is bad? I have a collection of CNC router and laser machines and they all work in both positive an negative coordinates depending on the setup. If you home your machine to the top right, when ever you job back into the work area that will be negative, but most people start their jobs from the bottom left of their material and that will result in positive movements (with the exception of the Z)
@@JamesDeanDesigns Hi James - I see, so are you suggesting that anyone using Easel should home to the bottom-left, and not to the top-right? Let me tell you my 'workaround': I home to the top-right on my machine, as usual, and in Easel, I set the (0,0) home position using the 5 dots to the top-right. This effectively moves the entire design _out of the scope of the board_ in Easel, so you won't get a preview anymore. This 'forces' Easel to generate negative X and Y values. Of course, I only do this after I'm done the design (so I can see the preview), right before I want to generate the gcode.
@@johnfaustus1 It sounds like you are using the homing function as a replacement for the zero function. So I design in easel normally and export the code. Then on the machine you run the home sequence, this lets the machine know a fixed position. Jog to the bottom left corner of your material, lower the Z down to touch the top of the material, press the Zero button and then start the job. There is no need to worry about positive and negative coordinates this way.
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks for your timely input - I will give that a go.
Would have liked to see how well it worked at the end :D Good tutorial!
I added that clip but ended up taking out the video because it felt too long. I'll be posting it on Instagram later so I'll share the link 👍
instagram.com/p/CTfl9UFj0vp/?
my spindle wont come on in Easel when i start to carve a project does all the movements ( x y z )
But no cutting thanks.
Check put issue one in this video. This is usually what solves it for most ua-cam.com/video/r-uLsMwOBfY/v-deo.html
@@JamesDeanDesigns Hi thanks for your advice , working fine now.
Turned out to be a faulty power adapter .
@@geralltroberts9360 glad you solved it
Great tutorial thanks, I will be doing acrylic cutting so would like to know more about how to do that as I understand getting the speed right is important so as not to melt the plastic and snapping the bits
Yes thats correct. I used a 2 flute 1/8th end mill and If Im 100% honest, this was the first time I had cut acrylic so it was a bit of a guess. Most common tool seems to be a O flute bit for cutting
Thanks for your prompt reply😀👍
Which grade of sandpaper did you use please?
Hi, cant remember off the top of my head. Probably a medium grit so maybe 120 - 200 something like that
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks. I'm really enjoying your 3018 videos. Really appreciate the great advice