Surface Highspeed Waterline

[Candicane]

Hi ,

ive a surface pocket to finish with highspeed waterline in 2021..

The pocket does have a flat floor in some areas..

Is it possible to include the machining of the flat floors with the waterline toolpath or do i need to come back with say a shallow or horizontal toolpath to machine the flat floor areas?

I know with surface -finish-contour it actually machines the flats within the toolpath itself..

Thanks

[#Rekd™]

You might try the Hybrid toolpath.

[AMCNitro]

12 hours ago, #Rekd™ said:

You might try the Hybrid toolpath.

Hybrid works really nice

[Colin Gilchrist]

14 hours ago, Candicane said:

Hi ,

ive a surface pocket to finish with highspeed waterline in 2021..

The pocket does have a flat floor in some areas..

Is it possible to include the machining of the flat floors with the waterline toolpath or do i need to come back with say a shallow or horizontal toolpath to machine the flat floor areas?

I know with surface -finish-contour it actually machines the flats within the toolpath itself..

Thanks

As a couple people have mentioned; Hybrid can do this very nicely, for some parts. It depends a lot on your geometry, and how many flats you've got, how many 'vertical walls', how many 'tapered walls', or what kind of organic shaped surfaces you've got.

For some parts however, I've had better luck performing two (or more) separate paths:

1. Surface High Speed > Horizontal Area (Stock to leave on Floors = 0.0, Stock to leave on Walls = 0.04" to 0.2")
2. Surface High Speed > Waterline (Stock to leave on Floors = 0.0001-0.004", Stock to leave on Walls = 0.0)

I have several reasons for doing it this way:

• With the SHS Horizontal Area > you can have multiple 'depth cuts'. I often will setup 2 cuts, at 0.004" each. (This gives me a 1st pass, which stays 0.004" off the floor, then finishes the floor.
• With SHS Horizontal Area > you can use "Trochodial motion" option to minimize burial in the corners, if there is excess material left over from roughing. (Remember, we are still staying "away" from the finish wall surfaces.)
• With SHS Horizontal Area > you can fine-tune the 'radial stepover' amount, to get a very efficient path, since you're typically not removing much material at the finishing stage.
• I will sometimes create 2 separate SHS Horizontal Area Paths. The first, using 'Trochodial motion', with a smaller stepover value, due to heavy engagement. With the 1st path, I would leave say 0.004" on the floor. With the 2nd path, I can increase Radial Stepover significantly, due to the very light engagement. I can also have separate 'Speed/Feed' values for each of the 2 paths.
• Most of the time with any of the SHS Paths, you can Copy/Paste, and only have to adjust a few parameters, to get the exact tool motion you are looking for.
• I will then follow up the Horizontal Area paths, with a Waterline path, to finish the walls. (I like to leave 0.0001-0.004" of stock on the floors.

[Candicane]

thanks for the very informative reply Colin!