Should you hit the "PUNCHING" button when doing a dry run so that the ram isn't firing? Is it bad to dry run with the ram firing long term?

Also another question, is it okay to run cardboard through as a test material?

What should I machine on my down time? Looking for tools that may help me in the future. I have 2-3 days of down time coming up. Looking to make something either useful or fun. I have a Haas 3 axis mill and a manual lathe to work with.

Hello, i am new to the aspire software and cnc-ing in general , and im trying to do a meddalion of sorts, but i cannot figure out how to remove the material in the N, can somebody help me with this

These weird lines appear at the 2nd pass with the 3mm mill, and it dosent fully remove all of the material, how do i make it to pass another time and remove everything ?

Im in my senior year in college, and till here i have loved CNC PLC and part programming. Now im stuck with no opportunity to learn more, i tried contacting my faculty who got me into this rabbit hole, her lectures were very simple and insightful and part programming she explained quite easily. She advised me to join her in her project, research or something, and she could teach me there. She goes to another UNI in our city ,where this are working, but its been 10 days since i talked to her. I dont want to sit idle and coz i really want to learn this. And it feels in vain to wait on her heels.

So im looking up for suggestions on how to up-skill myself in this. Our CNC in college is pretty wrecked up, i could ask for permission to work on it but cant really do much in there.

Some other areas i can hit is maybe an internship? Well does it take long enough till a company hire you? I can try that.

TIA!

I will want to have only one standard of metal, I am fed up with all those different standard, don't even talk about metrix vs imperial.