Rotary 4th axis surface machining

[Kenneth Potter]

Rotary 4th axis surface machining

I have an irregular Shape part that has muti surfaces that I want to machine on a rotary axis from cylinder stock. I kinda know all that flat tool path yada yada rotary stuff. But getting into rotary surface machining is new area for me.

About the X , Z0 is center of dia .

Cplane & toolplane set to top.

The rotary 4 axis option I have found has its limitations & only cuts in one stopover direction about the X axis cw or ccw. Is there some way to change the step over cut direction to Y, Keeping the same rotary axis set up ?

Also how can I use the surface roughing & finishing tool paths & wrap that tool path around irregular surface/solid in a cylindrical fashion.

 

Thanks in advance

Kenneth Potter

[Simtech]

Kenneth,

In 4 axis rotary, you have basically two options: axial or radial machining.

Axial MultiSurface Machining will run the tool in tha axial orientation of the part, i.e.,if the part is set up with the rotary axis aligned with the X axis and the center of the part at Y0Z0 you will get rotary axis maching with the axial command going.

The Rotary orientation will spin the 4th axis around for each increment programmed, moving along in the X axis.

Hope this helps!

Luc

[Kenneth Potter]

Thanks Simtec I get your explanation

My problem is getting a i,e, surface machinig tool path like parallel finish to wrap around completely to the multi surfaces . Can this be done in Mastercam? IF so how.

Iv been Playing around with the Old tool paths options & have found it very useful but a bit tricky on determining what sync mode to use that will get me an exact surface representation of my original so thats not an option for me.

K P

[cadcam]

Keneth,

Is this some what of what you want to do?

Picture of 4ax with multi surf

[Kenneth Potter]

Yes Jay thats Kinda what i want. And that axial option on the third tab paramater page was not there."rotary 4th axis" The computer i was on at that time was Ver 8.0 NOT 8.1.1. As soon as i updated it was there .

I like to seen if i can get the surface rough pocket tool path to wrap around in a rotary 4th axis fashion .

Kenneth Potter

[cadcam]

Hey Ken good thought.

I don’t thing so but I am game for trying stuff as you can tell.

In most cases I find for ruff the forth is not as strong for roughing a in a radial rotation so I would say stick with rotational positioning in plains.

If the shape in just pockets then you can do the 2D roll, then you can use the standard pocketing and it will move in the 4th.

Like the one on my misc page on my site.

[bryan.davis]

rotary surfacing is something Ive been doing a lot of recently.

Generally speaking the rotary 4 axis tool is for finishing and semi finishing onlyonly, for roughing you need to use the likes of the surface rough pocket operation, and the way you use it depends a lot on your part.

The first stage is to examine the part and discern the best way of removing the majority of the material using surface rough pocket as normal, normally you will need at least two operations.... the first operation approaching the job from the angle that the most material can be removed from and the subsequent operations from other angles (ie if only two operations are required then op 2 will probably be 180 degrees rotated).

next use the rotary 4 axis operation as a semi finish op to remove the worst of the cusps

finaly use the rotary 4 axis operation to finish the job.

[gstephens]

quote:

---

I like to seen if i can get the surface rough pocket tool path to wrap around in a rotary 4th axis fashion .

---

Fairly tough. The only "regular" surface toolpath that will go around the part is flowline, so unless you have a single surface, you're out of luck. Second, you could run the surface rough pocket, then turn on rotary replacement to get 4th axis motion. Problem is, you have to use flat pattern geometry since "Unroll" is not available on surface toolpaths. Biggest problem is, Xform-roll, does NOT work on surfaces. If you can approximate the part with a single coons surface for the roughing op, you can unroll the geometry used to create it, build the surface flat, run the rough pocket toolpath on it with rotary replacement, and you're all set. Or you can run flowline rough on the rolled surface, backplot and save the geometry, then run a contour with rotary replacement and Unroll selected, and you're done.

Sounds fun huh?

[cadcam]

Thanks gstephens ,sounds like a good time.

[Kenneth Potter]

I tryed flowline & it worked good but like you said it must be a single surface or if its multi the flow lines must be row crap. I find the roll /unroll function works primarly with flat Plane stuff . Then i created a grid of points & got some usefull results.

quote:

---

If you can approximate the part with a single coons surface for the roughing op, you can unroll the geometry used to create it, build the surface flat, run the rough pocket toolpath on it with rotary replacement, and you're all set. Or you can run flowline rough on the rolled surface, backplot and save the geometry, then run a contour with rotary replacement and Unroll selected, and you're done.

---

 

Huummmm I gonna try to drape a single surface using Alias or Rhino Then unroll that surface & try the rough pocket with rotary replacement. I think drape would give a better approximation of the original surface.

Let ya know how it go,s in a few

 

Love My Master cam

[ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Kenneth Potter ]

[Simtech]

Kenneth,

I think the easiest way is as stated before ... position part in 4 different orientations (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees) and multisurface rough the part to remove most of the material.

Afterwards, you can use the 4 axis axial or radial method for finishing purposes.

Hope this helps!

Luc

[Kenneth Potter]

I tryed your method & it worked.setting the part to 0,90.180,270, & changing cplane & tool plane to match.

Btw i tryed draping a surface to get a single surface . I drape the part from ),90,180,270 & trimmed the over lapping surface. Then i joined the trimmed surfaces to create a single surface. Unrolled it keepimg the topology in intact. Multi surface rotary axis it with some good results.

Kenneth Potter

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: Kenneth Potter ]

[PRASANTH N]

I have to perform roughing operation for a cam shaft, how to perform roughing operation, explain me with steps

[crazy^millman]

Got a file to share? Many ways to approach this and be good to have a sample file to understand how you are setup and what needs to be done.

 

Welcome to the forum and thanks for using the search function.

[PRASANTH N]

I got tutorial for finishing operation of camshaft using rotary 4th axis, but i need tutorial for rough operation, plz help me with some tutorials or guidance.

Thanks in advance

[crazy^millman]

I got tutorial for finishing operation of camshaft using rotary 4th axis, but i need tutorial for rough operation, plz help me with some tutorials or guidance.

Thanks in advance

 

Again we need a sample to know what you are trying to do. Create a .z2g and put it up here with a model and then we can see how to help. OptiRough or Multi Axis roughing come to mind.