surfaces hidden from the work plane

[Flycut]

I feel that i should be able to mill a surface with the top end of a lollipop cutter even if that surface isn't visible from the work plane.

 

Is mastercam even capable of this???

 

Thanks!

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

quote:

---

Is mastercam even capable of this???

---

Yes it is. When the shape allows, I generally like to use Flowline(you will have to turn gouge check off) because it is easy and fast. They have came out with a lot of new stuff for this lately in the other modules. I will try to find a doc and also post some more data for you in the morning.

 

Mike

[Flycut]

Thanks Mike, can't wait.

[Flycut]

I also have a face mill that has round inserts that give it a top cutting edge but then the diameter of the of the tool would be different then the rad.

Is it still possible to do it with this kind of tool?

Thanks again.

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Flycut,

 

Q:

quote:

---

I also have a face mill that has round inserts that give it a top cutting edge but then the diameter of the of the tool would be different then the rad.

Is it still possible to do it with this kind of tool?

---

A:

I believe that you will have to define the tool as a slot mill.

 

Here is a snipit from the file "appsappmch9.doc" in the Mr0105 release.

 

------------------------------------------

NEW FEATURES:

 

A) Undercut tools: Constant z operations.

 

Toolpath/Surface/Rough and Finish/Contour and Rough/Pocket are being

enhanced to support lollipop, slot, and dovemill cutters for undercut

machining. The constant Z cuts are created with the proper compensation

for these tools, including shank protection.

 

There is limited support for entry/exit motion for these cuts. For finish

and rough/contour, use entry/exit arcs to get the tool into and out of each

cut. Disable the transition and retract gouge checks. You may need to roll

tool over all edges and you may need to specify an approximate starting

position. For rough/pocket, you may use an entry point and lead in/out

motion to control entry/exit of the cuts.

 

These undercut tools are not supported in Rough/restmill (either as the

current tool or as the previous tool).

 

Slot mills and lollipop cutters require more time in toolpath calculation

because of the undercut areas of the part. The time to process seems to be

twice that of a corresponding ball, bull, or flat cutter. Dovemills are

noticeably slow to calculate. This is due to the additional compensation

needed for the cone portion of the cutter. If your part has less "negative"

taper angle than that of the dovemill cutter, you may use a slot mill to

properly, and quickly, calculate the toolpath.

 

Backplot and Verify: Dovemills with a corner radius larger than zero are

not properly illustrated in backplot and verify (auto profile). You can

define a custom tool and set backplot and verify to use profile "as defined".

This has been logged and corrected in version 9.1.

 

A prompt has been added to allow you to plot the limits of travel of the

undercut tool (where plotted geometry represents the tool center).

 

 

Undercut tools: Flowline operations.

 

Undercut support for lollipop, slot, and dovemill cutters is being added

to flowline. This includes undercut support for check surfaces. You will

still need (in general) to disable gouge check of gap motion. Use tangent

entry/exit arcs or the direction dialog to control the entry and exit

motion.

 

 

Use the tpcfg chook to enable the following new features.

 

These items (dialog and processing) were added after the general release.

If you enable the following items, the new controls will appear after you

press OK on the appropriate Mastercam dialog. The new controls will pop up

on a new dialog.

------------------------------------------

 

You must dive into it and see what you can do.

 

HTH,

Mike

[Flycut]

The problem I'm having with this now is...

 

With gouge check "off" the flowline operation wants to mill the front AND reverse side of my surface.

[Flycut]

The problem I'm having with this now is...

 

With gouge check "off" the flowline operation wants to mill the front AND reverse side of my surface.

 

I know it should be easy to fix but until you know it...

[Flycut]

Thanks anyways guys.

Figured this one out...

Was in the flowline parameters.