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Assistance with surfacing this feature


Sigurd
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I've been on Mastercam 2021 for about 8 months. We got a Haas Minimill about that time and I've been sending a lot of 2D work through it since then. This is a part that I regularly see and ordinarily, I would take a ball endmill and plunge to depth, and then make a 15 degree cutter on the Deckel and finish the walls. I am trying to 3D program this part because there are 12 in my current job. I am self-taught and I'm going through all the free lessons on Mastercam University.

The semi-spherical shape on the left, I was able to get Surface Finish Contour running well enough. The problem is that center slot. It is R.059 at the floor and 30 degrees included. I filled the hole, and that's been about it. Flowline, Surface Rough Parallel and Waterline all almost work, but of course, "almost" isn't good enough. Surface Rough Parallel doesn't seem to want to follow the angled wall. Waterline digs in on the first pass; I want .005 stepdown max. Flowline would do it if I could get all those surfaces to be one surface. 

I have attached a jpeg of what I'm cutting. Reason being is that my seat of Mastercam 2021 is only 2-axis. There is a 3-axis seat here in the shop, but I've been practicing on the Mastercam HLE version here at my bench so that I can go over to the other seat and not waste time practicing.

Would someone be willing to provide me some guidance on chaining and parameters for a toolpath that would cut these features?

9835 runner shutoff.jpg

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Raster or Blend would would work as well.  Put the part file up here and I'm sure someone will throw a toolpath or two on the part for you.  The issue might be everyone here has an Industrial seat and your trying to learn on HLE.  So the part file would be saved as a .MCAM file which you will not be able to open on the HLE.

You will likely need to create a containment boundary (Sihouette Boundary - Wireframe toolbar) to prevent the tool from rolling over the edges of the part.

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27 minutes ago, Chris In-House Solutions said:

Raster or Blend would would work as well.  Put the part file up here and I'm sure someone will throw a toolpath or two on the part for you.  The issue might be everyone here has an Industrial seat and your trying to learn on HLE.  So the part file would be saved as a .MCAM file which you will not be able to open on the HLE.

You will likely need to create a containment boundary (Sihouette Boundary - Wireframe toolbar) to prevent the tool from rolling over the edges of the part.

actually you can open a Industrial file in the HLE, just not the other way around, so if he provides a HLE file us with industrial licenses wont be able to open it. But if someone saves him an any industrial file the HLE can still open it. I think that is the case so people using the HLE for learning purposes can still review real part files, but they can not make real files that will generate code or can be used for manufacturing. 

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sigurd if you only have a mill2d license and not mill3d then i would take an approach like Mike shows here in his caminstructor blog video. Caminstructor makes excellent training videos and i highly recommend them to new users and their blog vids are all free and their paid courses are reasonably priced and have great content. this approach he shows would probably work well on that part.

https://blog.caminstructor.com/cutting-3d-forms-with-2d-toolpaths

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I have attached both files, one as HLE and the other as Industrial. I do have an Industrial 2D license. The HLE is how I practice. There is a 3D license here in the toolroom that I would like to use. That's where we're at. 

I got Blend to work. If someone would be willing to try a toolpath, they could put it on the Industrial file and I can see it. That would avoid the "opening an HLE" issue.

 

JoshC, I've watched that video before, and I've used the Swept 2D path to cut angles. I'm eager to learn the 3D surfacing toolpaths. We've got some need for that here in the toolroom now, with the addition of the Haas and the 3D license.

 

Thanks for all the replies so far.

shutoff pin 2021 test.mcam

shutoff pin HLE.emcam

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1 hour ago, Sigurd said:

I have attached both files, one as HLE and the other as Industrial. I do have an Industrial 2D license. The HLE is how I practice. There is a 3D license here in the toolroom that I would like to use. That's where we're at. 

I got Blend to work. If someone would be willing to try a toolpath, they could put it on the Industrial file and I can see it. That would avoid the "opening an HLE" issue.

 

JoshC, I've watched that video before, and I've used the Swept 2D path to cut angles. I'm eager to learn the 3D surfacing toolpaths. We've got some need for that here in the toolroom now, with the addition of the Haas and the 3D license.

 

Thanks for all the replies so far.

shutoff pin 2021 test.mcam

shutoff pin HLE.emcam

See if this help you out..:-)

shutoff pin 2021 test.mcam

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Yes, thank you! That's great. I really appreciate it.

2 hours ago, Chris In-House Solutions said:

Blend seems to be the best.  But here are a few more toolpaths on this part.  I put a Flowline toolpath on here as well.  Those surfaces and geometry can be found on level 400.

 

shutoff pin 2021 test.mcam

Your Level 400 surface doesn't have the hex cutout. How did you do that? Trimming a surface?

RonC, your surface has no transition, for lack of a better word. The floor radius moves smoothly into the wall. What's your process?

 

 

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Using the 3D seat, I would use High speed area clearance to rough it out with a small ball end mill, then follow it up with waterline cutting from slope angle 30 degrees to 90 degrees, and then use raster cutting from slope angle 0 degrees to 35 degrees.

 

Carmen

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2 hours ago, JParis said:

Many ways but with a 2D seat comes the venerable 2D Swept toolpath

A Runner Cutter would be my 1st choice but the 2D swept might have a place here as well 

JP_shutoff pin 2021 test.mcam

On MC2021 and still use it a lot making molds.  No better way of getting smooth tool motion , and plenty of control.  One of those TPs that I hope they never do away with.

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Thanks to all who have replied. If the part doesn't give it away, yes, I'm a moldmaker. It's a core pin that functions as a runner shutoff. Yes, I've used the Swept 2D path quite a bit since we got the Haas in the toolroom for roughing the lock angle on locks and slides with a 2" facemill. I'll keep practicing and wait for the parts to come in and then try to grab the 3D license and make chips. 

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