auger

[Gary]

I am trying to cut this so I don't have to just run a 4th axis spiral path and add an offset surface to protect the o.d. I have had good luck with morph paths on other stuff but the curves aligned better.

Is there anything someone can suggest on this? 

File attached

thanks

Label-Shaft-mill2.mcam

[crazy^millman]

4 hours ago, Gary said:

I am trying to cut this so I don't have to just run a 4th axis spiral path and add an offset surface to protect the o.d. I have had good luck with morph paths on other stuff but the curves aligned better.

Is there anything someone can suggest on this? 

File attached

thanks

Label-Shaft-mill2.mcam

Your on the right track and thank you for sharing your toolpath attempt. I unchecked the end surfaces. I changed the linking to use Cylinder. I also changed the cut type to Zig-Zag instead of spiral. I then changed the cut order from Outside to in. I extended your 2 curves to go past to allow the toolpaths something better to drive from verses the chopped out process you were getting. Still not giving me consistent cutting like I would want to see on a auger like this.

Now I go extremely oldschool back to the V9 days of cutting augers. I draw my toolpath and drive it using Curve 5 axis. This will take you the better part of a day to complete, but I promise you will be hard pressed to find a toolpath in Mastercam that will cut as clean as this process. Here are the steps to reproduce what I put in the linked file for a couple areas.

I made surfaces of the Auger Root using the solid from surfaces and the color mask picking those surfaces.

I then created edges on a level using curve all edges.

I then used create point segment to create 5 equal point on the top edges for each surface.

I then used Create Flowline Constant Parameter to make the lines to give use the along lines in the middles of the surfaces.

I then used create point segment again for 20 equal points on those 5 edges.

I then used create manual spline with Auto Cursor Locked to Point to start creating the spline to drive the toolpath that will change as the tape changes to be an equal amount from start to end on the gradual change of this auger.

I then used Curve 5 axis using the Splines created to drive the toolpath. I used 4 Axis as the Toolpath control picking the origin as the point for the rotation which aligned to the center of the auger. I used the surfaces to comp the toolpath to. I used a .200 shift in the tool control. I also defined a Safety zone that is 5" diameter around the part to give nice motion back and forth between cuts.

Like I said a days worth of work to do the whole auger, but the toolpath and quality of the auger from it will be unsurpassed. Maybe there is a current toolpath able to match what this old school process does, but I still haven't figured out a way or had to time to keep seeing what would work like this does.

5th Axis Example

[Gary]

Well thats a hell of a lot nicer than what I had going. The old school way makes a nice path but whoa thats work

thank you very much for the help!

[crazy^millman]

22 minutes ago, Gary said:

Well thats a hell of a lot nicer than what I had going. The old school way makes a nice path but whoa thats work

thank you very much for the help!

Yes a lot of work, but what we did 20 years ago.

Glad to help and wish there was an easy button, but sometimes to get exactly what you want it takes some work.

[crazy^millman]

Here is one I did years ago for someone on the forum. I updated it to 2022 so you can what a consistent surface on the auger will yield when using Morph.

5th Axis Auger Example from Forum

[Gary]

I will take a look first thing in morning. May try and rebuild this model. I’m not sure how they designed this but the sweep is ugly. I’ve used swept on extrusion diverters in the past and it worked awesome. .