mastercam Lathe toolpath

[drexen16]

i created a lathe drawing in the proper view but now i need to figure out how to create a toolpath for that drawing. i have the entire drawing and not just the half geometry. should i only have half the geo. i really need someone to explain it to me clearly.

 

thanks in advance

[crazy^millman]

Yes only half the geometry above the center line. A full part will only work if you are doing upper and lower turret programming.

 

HTH

[Oppiz]

Now draw a horizonal line from origin thru your part. Use break at intersections. This separates your chains so you can delete the unwanted half.

[Dan@home]

You can program it with the whole drawing but you really only need the upper half for most machines.

[drexen16]

now that i have only half the geo, what do i do from there to draw my toolpath. i have tried just using lathe rough toolpath but it doesn't seem to work at all. i must be doing something wrong. Could somebody please, just explain clearly how to create a toolpath for the geo i have created. it is only the upper half of the drawing and it appears almost like a spinning top. do i start the toolpath at the outside of the drawing or on the inside nearest zero. i would assume the outside but i don't know how MC works with the lathe.

 

I would just like clear instructions for creating a lathe toolpath.

 

thanks

[Cjones]

drexen16,

Ok I uploaded a MCX2 file to the FTP site I created that sort of looks like a "top" as you described(instructions for the FTP site are at the top of every page on this forum). It is in the MCX2 folder and the name of the file is drexen16. Download it and use it as a reference. I created 3 operations. The first is a facing op. This is probably what you would want to do before roughing.

Order of operations

afer drawing part-

I set up the stock parameters(which are accesible from the "files" folder directly under your machine type in the operations manager). Select the stock setup tab and the "parameters" button under "stock" for left spindle. On the geometry tab select your OD,ID, etc. This will help MC determine how much to face, how to rough, and how to exit the part without a crash. When done, click ok. I then selected a toolpath- "rough" to create a tool operation.

If you look at the roughing op folder I made, select "parameters"- you can see all the parameters that must be set(DepthOfCut, min DOC, stock to leave, etc.)

To create this op you select "rough"(not canned rough though) just regular rough toolpath. I selected the geometry from the origin to where I would like to rough to.If you click the rough folder I made and select "geometry-1 chain" you will see on the screen the geometry I selected, direction, and correct side of the part I would like to rough.(this will take some practice as direction, side of part and a complete chain are critical). After you do this click OK and MC will prompt you for all the parameters by which you would like the part roughed as I explained earlier. The finish op is pretty straight forward, if you get this far. I will be logged multiple times tom. if you need help. Hope this helps and was described simply. Let me know how it goes.

Chris