4th axis rotary help!

[WildBill9000]

I am trying to cut the outside of a part on a rotary axis and i am having a really hard time getting any kind of a toolpath that doesnt rapid through the part or try to cut it from the inside out or not do anything at all. I put the autocad solid (2540 model 4th axis.dwg) in a zip file (wildbill.zip) and put it on the ftp site

ftp://www.ppcadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/solids/

 

If anybody could lead me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. I am really new to Mastercam and this is a super complicated part, not to mention that we have to make it out of 304L stainless steel. Our MC dealer is going to look at it too, but I thought I should try to get as much help as I can.

 

For the Rotary setup the part will be held in the bore on the rotary axis (x axis of rotation) in a vertical mill. the rotary axis is a full rotary, not just a positioner.

 

I am not looking for someone to do this for me, just a nudge in the right direction. We usually make simple holes and slots, this is nuts!

[robert turner]

I am also having this problem. I have tried both 4-axis rotary and 5 axis flowline using 4-axis output.

[Dan@home]

Are you trying to do a Rotary 4th Axis? Or a Rotary position? It looks like you could use a little of both, maybe a little surface machining.. I had it doing a Rotary 4th Axis, but I dought thats not all you want. For a rotary postion you will have to create a few Construction & Tool planes to mill all the different angled flats. I asume your using X2?

 

You can do that by going to (planes) and selecting solid faces or geometry. You have to make sure all of X+,s are pointing the same direction along the axis of rotation. Your Z+ are pointing outward not into the part. The Y+ should be pointing upward all in the same direction and (Name each View)..

 

Select each (Named View) before you start machining it or you will have problems like you talking about.

 

There are a number of books on that subject.

[WildBill9000]

We still have x1 with sp2. What are the book titles?

[gcode]

Bill,

They sell some books on this website. #10 (Indexing Projects) would be a good place to start.

I looks like most of the projects are 4 axis

HMC tombstone samples, but the pronciple is the same.

Have you looked in the Sample files that shipped with X, I'm sure there are some rotatary samples in there.

[Rick Henrickson The Boeing Co.]

+1 dandbo, you need to set up you wcs and c and t planes to get it to work right for each face or fuul 4th move.

[Dan@home]

Bill all Versions of MCX should be close to the same on this subject.

[Todd Tracey from Fastech]

In House also has a Multi-Axis book that I've sold several customers

[WildBill9000]

Alrighty, I used surface roughing to rough the round part and to finish the flats. My question is how can i get it to position the rotary axis for the surface roughing? I checked rotary axis for all of the surfacing operations but it wont post an angle for them. Multisurface works great.

[Guest]

You need to create a T plane at the rotation that you are going to work at, then set the WCS for TOP and the C & T plane for the rotational plane you've created.

 

If you do not know how to create a T Plane, do a search for WCS. There is a WCS tutorial done by HArdmill, for V9 still quite relevant however as the methods are the same but the locations of the functions have changed.

 

"Generally" to get all the way around a round part you'll like need 3 planes/rotations, depending on the amount of features on the part you could need more to effectively remove the material.

[Jack Neelands™]

+1000 John ...you can go through the basics with making tool planes just by rotating and copying the 2 lines you have allready going through center and saving them on different levels with their corrosponding angle so you you dont get confused when making your toolpaths ...make sure you rename your toolpaths as well so that you are not searching to much when you are checking what you are doing ...good luck

[WildBill9000]

Alright, everthing works great!

 

In Mastercam only. When I go to run the multiaxis stuff for real the tool dives down into the part when it feeds in Y,Z, and A. I have no idea what is wrong. Verify looks fantastic. I dont know if my post is screwed up or something is wrong with my machine. Or maybe I am a retard, which is probably more likely. Op 9 starts the multiaxis finishing and the start of my problems.

 

I put my MCX (WildBill9000.MCX) file on the ftp

ftp://www.ppcadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/MC...20Earler_Files/

[WildBill9000]

BTW I get this when I post OP 9;

 

G0 G90 X-.9827 Y1.6749 A-42. S1146 M3

G43 H5 Z12.3985

Z8.4985

G1 Z8.3985 F100.

X-1.0186 Y1.4768

X-1.0466 Y1.2775

X-1.0666 Y1.0772

X-1.0787 Y.8762

X-1.0827 Y.6749

Y.6262

Y.0898

Y5.6368 Z6.1812 A-84. F560.17

Y.6784 F100.

Y.4304

X-1.624

Y.48

Y5.3889

Y5.6864

Y.1385 Z8.3985 A-42. F489.58

[WildBill9000]

Hmmm, could it be because MC thinks that the axis of rotation is in the center of the part and not the center of the bore where I have zero set at?

[WildBill9000]

AHA!! I added angle point generators (.01) and it works great now! WHOOOHOOOOO!!!