Which Tool Path to use

[astrocncdept]

I am doing a part that resembles an egg beater/mixer. The end is open so we preped the part with the lathe. My real question being is there a way to define what my stock size is so that mastercam can machine only the material left using the solid model? I have some tool paths that work right now, just alot of wasted air moves since we machined what we could using the lathe, following it up with a 4 axis hurco. I've done vary sizes of these, but I am left with the task of speeding the job up. Any ideas on tool paths to try or ways to define the bounding boxes or shapes would be great.

 

Thanks

[Mic6]

Save your verfied lathe model as an STL and use that in your milling op.

[astrocncdept]

Use the STL in stock setup?

[Flippin 416]

Yep...use the saved STL in the stock setup....then each time you perform an op to the stock, resave it as a new STL for the next op.

[astrocncdept]

We got it, big help! Thanks

[veedubnut115]

How can you get rid of the wasted air moves? I used an High Speed Rest Mill toolpath and instead of defining a roughing tool I used the STL file, however it still cuts alot of air. Is there a way for Mastercam to just cut where stock is left, kinda like when you rough with one tool path and then Restmill, and it only cuts whats left. Is there a way. Maybe I wasn't using the STL correctly either. Is there an Online resource for the use of STL?

 

Oh by the way, By using the STL file and High speed tool paths I was able to speed up the roughing cycle, I was just looking to cut as much time out as possible.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[veedubnut115]

Use the High Speed rest rough toolpath

Select your STL file as the CAD file

and set the "Rest Material" setting to CAD file

 

That is what I was trying to do with my tool path, but when I backplot and run the code, it cuts where there is no material (AIR). Any ideas? Maybe a setting??

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

If you right click on the toolpath and select toolpath editor you may be able to remove some of the aircuts. I've never tried this with a high speed toolpath and I would procede with caution if in fact mastercam allows this feature when using high speed toolpaths.