Surface Side Mill

[Flycut]

I would like to "surface" the radius in red but I want to use climb milling with the side of the endmill and some kind of "A" axis substitution.

Is there an operation that would allow me to do that?

The radius is not centered on the "A" axis and would require "Y" to shift accordingly with every pass. 

[Flycut]

End view 

[GoetzInd]

Do you have multi-axis? If so, you have a ton of good options.

Mike 

[CEMENTHEAD]

I did something like it using Rotary 4-axis.

[GoetzInd]

Along curve or morph would due you well and give you a lot more control.

Mike

[Flycut]

From what I see the toolpaths you are suggesting are designed for a ball nose endmill.

I'm hoping to generate a toolpath with the side of a flat endmill by simply indexing the "A" axis.

[crazy^millman]

How long of a part? Climb milling with the side along the A Axis is interesting to think about. Tip with a flat easy, but side of the endmill doing the same thing not easily done and open to seeing someone come along and show us how to make it happen like I think you are describing.

Here is a link to a 2023 file for a 4 Axis to do it with the tip, but to do it with the side I cannot get any of the Moduleworks toolpaths to do it. They all freak out with trying to go 90 to the surface with any tool. I was able to get Rotary 4 Axis to do it, but it gouges the finish part. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Linky to give it a try

 

[GoetzInd]

Ah I gotcha. You could do that with morph with a offset surface and then turn off tool tip collision. 

Mike 

[Flycut]

17 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

How long of a part? Climb milling with the side along the A Axis is interesting to think about. Tip with a flat easy, but side of the endmill doing the same thing not easily done and open to seeing someone come along and show us how to make it happen like I think you are describing.

Here is a link to a 2023 file for a 4 Axis to do it with the tip, but to do it with the side I cannot get any of the Moduleworks toolpaths to do it. They all freak out with trying to go 90 to the surface with any tool. I was able to get Rotary 4 Axis to do it, but it gouges the finish part. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Linky to give it a try

 

It sounds like you know exactly what I'm saying.

11 minutes ago, GoetzInd said:

Ah I gotcha. You could do that with morph with a offset surface and then turn off tool tip collision. 

Mike 

I'll give that a shot.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Would the software be happier with a barrel cutter (circular section)?

[crazy^millman]

51 minutes ago, Matthew Hajicek - Singularity said:

Would the software be happier with a barrel cutter (circular section)?

Yes with a barrel cutter options are much better.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

8 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Yes with a barrel cutter options are much better.

Ok, what if the "barrel cutter" has a one million inch radius?

 

[crazy^millman]

10 hours ago, Matthew Hajicek - Singularity said:

Ok, what if the "barrel cutter" has a one million inch radius?

 

Then we are back to the same problem with the flat endmill.

[MWearne]

I like to play along at home sometimes...is this what we're after? Sorry if I read the question wrong:)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwqj8lv5u4kq6ee/5TH AXIS ODD CUT - maybe.mcam?dl=0

...edit, I think I did read the question wrong, maybe this is the way? Its crude but maybe the correct motion?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dcm3n4nuu2iwumf/5TH AXIS ODD CUT - maybe2.mcam?dl=0

[WestRiver]

How about removing the rad. and using the new 5 axis deburring 

[Aaron Eberhard]

Happy new year, Gents!

There's a couple of easy ways to accomplish this in the ModuleWorks toolpaths.   Used Unified set to Flow for an easy pattern, two chains set to guide or Morph should accomplish the same thing, though.  Note that I didn't really play with linking, cut directions, etc.

In any case, the first stop is Tool Axis Control page, where you have the option to use the older way (toolpath #1) or the newer way (toolpath #2).  

Toolpath 1) The older way is simply to set the side tilt to 90 (or -90, whatever fits your need), that'll put the edge-corner of the tool right where you want it, but, we want to slide down the tool to cut away from the tip, so go to Utility page and put in a "Axial Shift" to where ever you want to cut on the flutes.  I'm using Ron's example with a 1/2" cutter with 1" of flute, so I just said to shift it by -.25".

Toolpath 2) takes advantage of the algorithms developed for the barrel cutters, even though I'm using it with a flat endmill.  Change Side Tilt Angle to Contact Point (instead of the default Angle), then, you can tell it to keep the tool X % up the flute length.  In this case, I chose 25% so it's also keeping the tool in contact .25" up the flute. 

Hope this helps!

OneDrive Link

[crazy^millman]

1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Happy new year, Gents!

There's a couple of easy ways to accomplish this in the ModuleWorks toolpaths.   Used Unified set to Flow for an easy pattern, two chains set to guide or Morph should accomplish the same thing, though.  Note that I didn't really play with linking, cut directions, etc.

In any case, the first stop is Tool Axis Control page, where you have the option to use the older way (toolpath #1) or the newer way (toolpath #2).  

Toolpath 1) The older way is simply to set the side tilt to 90 (or -90, whatever fits your need), that'll put the edge-corner of the tool right where you want it, but, we want to slide down the tool to cut away from the tip, so go to Utility page and put in a "Axial Shift" to where ever you want to cut on the flutes.  I'm using Ron's example with a 1/2" cutter with 1" of flute, so I just said to shift it by -.25".

Toolpath 2) takes advantage of the algorithms developed for the barrel cutters, even though I'm using it with a flat endmill.  Change Side Tilt Angle to Contact Point (instead of the default Angle), then, you can tell it to keep the tool X % up the flute length.  In this case, I chose 25% so it's also keeping the tool in contact .25" up the flute. 

Hope this helps!

OneDrive Link

Can you give us those in a Flowline V method not Flowline U? I could get that method to work and learned some things with your example that I was not using thank you for that. I couldn't get the tool to spin around the Axis like i showed with the 4 Axis Flowline. That is what I was fighting with to get work why I threw out the 4 Axis toolpath to match what I thought was being asked. If this method is what was the thought all along then good, but I would like to see the tool rotating around the axis to see what method Moduleworks will do it since I tried may different ways and couldn't find a good way to make it happen.

Thank you and goes to show everyday is a school day.

[Aaron Eberhard]

2 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Can you give us those in a Flowline V method not Flowline U? I could get that method to work and learned some things with your example that I was not using thank you for that. I couldn't get the tool to spin around the Axis like i showed with the 4 Axis Flowline. That is what I was fighting with to get work why I threw out the 4 Axis toolpath to match what I thought was being asked. If this method is what was the thought all along then good, but I would like to see the tool rotating around the axis to see what method Moduleworks will do it since I tried may different ways and couldn't find a good way to make it happen.

Thank you and goes to show everyday is a school day.

Rotating it 90° is certainly harder.. I updated the file to show a way to do it.  In that case, you need to use lead/lag to adjust it, but there's a limit to 89.99..  That's okay, though, because you can lock it to 4 axis so it'll be fine for all practical purposes..  

I updated the file on the onedrive.

[crazy^millman]

I applied one of the things learned in this topic to a part today using a barrel cutter on. I have 60 other areas on my current part this is also going to apply to. Areas that were taking 30-45 minutes to finish I see reducing down to less than 5 minutes using the barrel cutters. I set 10% to 60% range on the tool and picked a floor for an avoidance surface. This is now using more of the 750mm Radius in the flat areas and then where I am going into a 1.5mm area the 1.5mm tip radius is being used. I cannot wait to watch this toolpath run a 5 Axis machine. It is going to be like a ballet watching this tool cut this part in places. Sorry not allowed to share anything more than the settings.

[Aaron Eberhard]

22 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

I applied one of the things learned in this topic to a part today using a barrel cutter on. I have 60 other areas on my current part this is also going to apply to. Areas that were taking 30-45 minutes to finish I see reducing down to less than 5 minutes using the barrel cutters. I set 10% to 60% range on the tool and picked a floor for an avoidance surface. This is now using more of the 750mm Radius in the flat areas and then where I am going into a 1.5mm area the 1.5mm tip radius is being used. I cannot wait to watch this toolpath run a 5 Axis machine. It is going to be like a ballet watching this tool cut this part in places. Sorry not allowed to share anything more than the settings.

Perfect!  That's exactly what this was designed for.   These are the same settings used in the Mulitaxis Pocketing toolpath when you use a barrel to finish, but obviously a lot more flexible out in the big toolkit.    The other cool thing is that it works correctly for LENS type tools as well, so you can keep it on the spherical tip nicely.

[motor-vater]

Super old school option.... Use a Contour, then translate/rotate the contour around the radius