Hi all,

My partner is producing a product that has alphabet pockets in a piece of wood, to a high enough detail that a 3mm end mill is necessary but sometimes large enough that a 6 or even 8mm end mill clearance pass makes sense.

The feature seemed obvious to me, check use larger area clearance tool, set it to a larger tool and run the second pocket (clear) path after the detailing toolpath is done, or before even.

What I have found with the detailing path is the the tool will run the first pass of the pocket at whatever the tool pass depth is set to, and then retract, then repeatedly plunge and retract all over the pocket. Depending on the complexity of the pocket this may go on for 4-5 minutes before beginning the second pass, and then the plunging happens again. I assume it is clearing tiny little theoretical scallop/triangles between the area clearance toolpath and fine tool path but it is completely inefficient and actually just about negates the use of an area clearance tool altogether, timewise. It doesn't sound like it is cutting anything with these plunges nor are chips produced.

Is there a way to force an overlap between the two toolpaths so this isn't necessary, or some other common way to mitigate this problem?

Thanks in advance!
Josh