Lightburn to run cnc routing?

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
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I have experience using fusion360 drawing and output of G code for everything from Mach3, UCCNC, Centroid, and yes GRBL.

i have built several arduino uno based cnc router control boxes using GRBL 1.1, but I’ve only recently started using Lightburn to run a diode laser, and soon the CO2 laser I’m building.

I am really liking the interface in Lightburn and am thinking it could easily be adapted to do a fair amount of 2.5D work on a GRBL based cnc router, and then flip back to another profile for laser work.

I’m sure someone has blazed this trail, so educate me on what works and how, as well as what doesn’t.

Thank you
Duke

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Check this recent post about the possibility of doing this. Your use case is more narrow if you’re limiting the usage to 2.5D applications so would have fewer challenges but if you’re familiar with CNC and somewhat familiar with LightBurn you can likely already anticipate some of the potential hurdles.

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Running GRBL 1.1

And yes for 2.5D only, as I still have fusion360 for true 3D.

There is some control of a Z axis in Lightburn so I’m sure I could create a tool path same as a laser path, biggest issue is likely to be kerf width to accommodate bit size.
I’m not in front of my computer, is there a kerf width input area in Lightburn?

Thanks
Duke

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There is, but with a maximum of 5 mm, it’s likely not going to work well for machining:

There’s also limited support for lead-in cuts :

On the upside, you can re-re-purpose the laser intensity PWM control back to its original motor speed control function!

LightBurn is really good for lasers, but it’s almost certainly not the CNC design program you are looking for.

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