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Finish toolpath C axis?


CNCZACK
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10 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

On that kind of machine it will have to be surface machined. There is no way to cut it with a regular contour toolpath.

that's what I'm struggling with now, I've been spoiled with multi-axis toolpaths so I never run into this problem. Would it be possible with some long winded geometry modification through C-axis contour or would it have to be done with a multi-axis toolpath? 

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Problem is the wall is not normal to the Center line. For a C axis toolpath to contour the walls at places along the diameter the walls would have to be aligned with center line. Since the pockets are not tapered, but straight then you will have to use a Surface machining toolpath to machine them. If the machine had a Y axis easy peasy, but with only a C axis you have some work to do.

You will need to make a plane at each of the pockets normal to them like you have with caxis and drive the toolpaths that way. Then in the toolpath you are using Axis Substitution you need to use C axis. It will get you close. but not a perfect wall. That is where you will need to then use a Finishing toolpath with a ball endmill also using C axis for the Rotary Axis control. Then the next question becomes do you want to use Polar Coordinates or just basic C Axis output?

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1 minute ago, crazy^millman said:

Problem is the wall is not normal to the Center line. For a C axis toolpath to contour the walls at places along the diameter the ways would have to be aligned with center line. Since the pockets are not tapered, but straight then you will have to use a Surface machining toolpath to machine them. If the machine had a Y axis easy peasy, but with only a C axis you have some work to do.

You will need to make a plane at each of the pockets normal to them like you have with caxis and drive the toolpaths that way. Then in the toolpath you are using Axis Substitution you need to use C axis. It will get you close. but not a perfect wall. That is where you will need to then use a Finishing toolpath with a ball endmill also using C axis for the Rotary Axis control. Then the next question becomes do you want to use Polar Coordinates or just basic C Axis output?

so with my c-axis plane i would need to make each wall basically my centerline and have a plane for both sides?  are you saying a finish toolpath like a flowline type to make it appear straighter than it is? it does sound like a lot of work. would thread milling on a centerline work here or would i run into the same situation? 

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2 minutes ago, CNCZACK said:

so with my c-axis plane i would need to make each wall basically my centerline and have a plane for both sides?  are you saying a finish toolpath like a flowline type to make it appear straighter than it is? it does sound like a lot of work. would thread milling on a centerline work here or would i run into the same situation? 

Your Threadmilling is on the face not the same problem. There X and C will allow the process to work, but on the Diameter you are forced tap any holes you cannot C Axis threadmill on a Diameter. The big cross hole if that needs to be a tight tolerance you will need to finish that with a boring head.

Does the machine have a Y axis?

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1 minute ago, crazy^millman said:

Your Threadmilling is on the face not the same problem. There X and C will allow the process to work, but on the Diameter you are forced tap any holes you cannot C Axis threadmill on a Diameter. The big cross hole if that needs to be a tight tolerance you will need to finish that with a boring head.

Does the machine have a Y axis?

i meant thread milling on the diamter. this machine does not have a y axis. a,x,z and live tools veritcal and horizontal

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1 minute ago, CNCZACK said:

i meant thread milling on the diamter. this machine does not have a y axis. a,x,z and live tools veritcal and horizontal

Well sorry to say that is the wrong machine choice for that part. You will be able to get it done, but yes you have some work ahead of you making parts like that on that machine.

Encase I was not clear NO will not be able to threadmill on the diameter of the part it will create a tapered thread. On the Faces YES.

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A handy way to check whether it's possible to do things is to look at it from the front, switch to 2d mode, create curves on edges (your straight walls) and modify length to see if they intersect the origin.     Obviously, on this part it's easy to visually see that it's not gonna happen, but I've seen parts where the wall was only off .5° or so, so it looked like it was possible until you really analyzed it:

What Ron's saying, in this example, you have to treat anything between the orange and blue as an undercut feature, as if you were doing an undercut wall on a 3 axis machine.

VTL Test.png

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1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

A handy way to check whether it's possible to do things is to look at it from the front, switch to 2d mode, create curves on edges (your straight walls) and modify length to see if they intersect the origin.     Obviously, on this part it's easy to visually see that it's not gonna happen, but I've seen parts where the wall was only off .5° or so, so it looked like it was possible until you really analyzed it:

What Ron's saying, in this example, you have to treat anything between the orange and blue as an undercut feature, as if you were doing an undercut wall on a 3 axis machine.

VTL Test.png

 

 

wow. well put, visually it makes so much more sence. ive never undercut in a mill but i could see where the undercutting would take place. thank you for this 

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2 hours ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

A handy way to check whether it's possible to do things is to look at it from the front, switch to 2d mode, create curves on edges (your straight walls) and modify length to see if they intersect the origin.     Obviously, on this part it's easy to visually see that it's not gonna happen, but I've seen parts where the wall was only off .5° or so, so it looked like it was possible until you really analyzed it:

What Ron's saying, in this example, you have to treat anything between the orange and blue as an undercut feature, as if you were doing an undercut wall on a 3 axis machine.

VTL Test.png

Picture is worth a 1000 words.

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