Surface ToolPath

[Tony Tran]

Hi,

 

I am here to need your help. I want to finish the surface and corner inside radius in 3 Axis as shown below. However, I don't know which surface finish toolpath I should you.

 

 

I used Surface Finish Contour but it doesn't look like I want. There is an extra outside toolpath. And it doesn't cover corner radius as shown.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Tony Tran

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

Tony,

 

From your picture it looks like your tool radius is the same or bigger than the radius of the part. That could be why the toolpath ends at the radius. If you want to machine the radii of the part you have to have a tool with a smaller radius. Or possibly you did not select the radii surfaces. I would try surface finish flowline or surface finish blend. If you use flowline you may need sperate flowline toolpaths for each surface.

 

HTH

[Tony Tran]

Thank you Justin. I will try the ways you show me.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Tony,

 

Surface Finish Contour will do exactly what you want.

 

First, unshade your surfaces and make sure all your surface normals are pointing towards the inside surfaces (in wireframe display mode, the positive side will be the same color as your surfaces, the backside will be grey, use Edit-set normals if you need to reverse it).

 

Go into Gap Settings, change retract size radio button to "distance" and set it to 1".

 

Now click on the "advanced settings" button and set the option to "only between surfaces (solid faces)". This option keeps the tool from cutting the outside surfaces you showed in the picture.

 

Sometimes, the "only between surfaces" option doesn't work. If it still won't cut only the inside surfaces, you need to create a containment boundary. Use the "create boundary" chook.

 

Also, in the transition section, set the transition to "follow surfaces".

 

Try also turning on "optimize cut order", but turn off "minimize burial".

[Colin Gilchrist]

PS,

 

Increasing the Gap setting distance to 1" will also stop those little retract moves along the top section of the surfaces. "follow surfaces" also helps with this.

 

Basically when you use surface finish contour in an area like this, you should have only one feed in move, and one retract move, with continuous cutting the rest of the time.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Flowline would probably give a poor result, as some of the UV vectors of the drive surfaces will most likely not form a row. This means that flowline will try and machine each surface individually.

[MotorCityMinion]

Colin, in those 3 brief responses, you've answered and solved more problems and issues I've had with surfacing since I've been using MC. (8 month's). A folder in the FTP that solely relates to surfacing tips and tricks would be awesome. Thanks for the help. I'm actually looking forward to my next surface now, lol.

[crazy^millman]

Motor that is why I have a notebook with a lot printed pages off this forum.