Knurling on a CNC lathe

[ssibiski]

I have a CNC Lathe and mastercam's lathe software.

I have recently tried to get mastercam to do some knurling and I have not had any luck.

I was wondring if anyone many have some tips, or a good Idea on how to get it to work.

Any help at all on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you,

[Trevor Bailey]

Kind of depends on the tool you are using. Try to get one that is "not" the bump style. Create a peice of geometry, such as a straight line for the tool to follow. Take care to set the tool correctly. If you use a tool-eye, jog the tool up to the bar stock, (diameter already turned ready for knurl), adjust the rollers to the diameter, back off and then use your tool eye. For the tool path, just use a simple finish pass with slow feeds/speeds at first to get things going. There really isn't that much to knurling. The difficult part is getting the tool set right so that all the rollers hit the part evenly. Even the "floating heads", have to be adjusted to the part. One of the key statements here, set the tool to the diameter that is to be knurled.

[ssibiski]

Thank you for the information. We are not using a bump style knurling tool. We currently have a tool that pinches the material between two knurles.

We are putting straight knurles on a stainless steel shafts. One problem that we now seem to have is that when the knurling tool moves onto the material and then starts to jog over the begining knurles seem to not be fully formed.

I can't get it to pause there and finish forming the knurl and then start to jog without tearing up the knurl.

If you have any idea's I would appreciate hearing them.

 

Steve Sibiski

[Trevor Bailey]

It sounds like the front of your part is not supported. You said that you are turning a shaft. Try putting a "center" in your operation or maybe add to the program an operation that you can slide the part back in the chuck more. There are many ways to skin a cat, you just have to catch it first. What I mean is, find out what the real problem is. To me, it sounds like nothing more than deflection because it is out too far in relation to the diameter you are turning.

 

Hope this helps,