open pocket

[somename75]

It has been my experience that open pocket pretty much ignores whatever stepover is input for the first pass, most often leaving an island. The way i work around this is by screwing around with the stepover amount untill some random stars line up and it will actually cut the entire floor of a pocket. Is there some work around that i am missing, and is there a reason that this hasnt been fixed yet? I have had this problem since version 9 and it can be tough to catch if the island left is very small. thanks

[Mike-T]

Right or wrong, If it doesn't do what I want the 1st time, I close the chain and create a point outside the pocket to lead in from and use regular pocket.

[3R!< W3NG3R]

I don't even try. I just do what Mike said right from the begining.

[doyleg]

Instead of the stepover amount, leave more stock on walls instead.

[somename75]

Ok thanks for the replies guys, so it seems we just have to accept that open pocket doesnt work right half the time. Is this in the works to be fixed?

[JDowe]

I have good luck using the open pocket cutting

method - checked in the open pocket dalog box

[Guest]

Open pockets works for what I use it for

[Thee Dragracer1951]

Strange, I just did a pretty complex part that I used open pockets on a lot. Worked flawlessly.

[crazy^millman]

Can you provide some examples of what you are seeing. I also have used this very well in the past. Have some screen shots or a file??

[gcode]

The new "peel mill" toolpath would probably

doa reeal sweet job on an open pocket

[heavychevy2155]

I use open pocket alot of times, but I wish it would rapid over to the next cut or feed fast across. It waist alot of time feeding over for the next pass. I've found that if I use contour with multi passes, I can just have the tool rapid to clearance plain and use a fast plunge feed to go to next cut.

[gcode]

quote:

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It waist alot of time feeding over for the next pass

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That's what made me think of peel mill

[somename75]

Im no good at screen shots but what happened this last time was with an open rectangular pocket 1.75 wide. I was trying to use a 1/2" endmill and set the stepover to 65% cause thats a pretty good engagement for what i was trying to do. The first pass comes in feeds over .592 and comes back out. The rest of the passes on the pocket are fine but a 1/2 endmill is gonna have a tough time cleaning up a floor when its passes are over 1/2 " apart. This is really simple math, and it doesnt seem that we should have to fiddle with the stepover % to get it to clean up a floor. Hope that helps describe what i am seeing. By the way i have used this path many times with good results, there just needs to be some logic put it where it wont exceed the % on the first pass, but add a pass if need be. Thanks