Looking for machining suggestions

[Randy Wolff]

This is a part that is being quoted. I am looking for some suggestions on how to machine this clamp. I have never done anything like this before. It would be run on a vertical with a full forth axis.

Thanks in advance.

Randy

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Can't see a part. You could put it on the FTP, or put a picture on Photobucket and link it here.

[Randy Wolff]

How do you get the password for the ftp site. I have a solid I can put out there.

[#Rekd™]

Here are the instructions.

 

http://www.emastercam.com/board/index.php?showtopic=65470

[mkd]

http://www.emastercam.com/board/index.php?showtopic=65470

[Randy Wolff]

I attached a MCX-6 file. Hpoefully it comes thru.

CLAMP.MCX-6

[chris graf]

You might want to save and U/L this as an earlier version. I'm still on X5 and I'm sure many decent programmers are even on earlier versions.

[GoetzInd]

Looks like some positional ands a few swarf toolpaths. SHould not be that difficult. Do you have the multi axis add on?

 

Mike

[GoetzInd]

P.S. If this is something that's new to you, it mite be a good idea to pay one of the contractors here on the board (Jeremy?) to knock it out for you (especially if your post, MD, CD are not set up for full 4th). Going forward you could probably reverse engineer their stuff and handle it yourself. My .02

 

Mike

[mkd]

yep, 4axis part due to the holes rotating on one axis and sharp corner-wall.

 

just make it flat and press the twist into it.

[Rotary Ninja]

Ohhhh that looks FUN!

[Rotary Ninja]

Sorry, I shouldn't be so short.

 

That is not a part I would recommend someone new to Mastercam to try and tackle. Heck, even someone good with Mastercam but new to rotary work might have trouble with it. How skilled are you at machining and at using Mastercam?

 

I just gave it a quick glance, and I assume you are trying to get this machined in one setup? Is it Iconel? I ask because I have seen slightly similar parts when I was doing Aerospace work. The material is going to make a difference on how you attack this. I could give you a couple examples of how I would do it, but it would take quite a bit of work to setup this part and program it. And all I have is the home learning edition of Mastercam.

[RayD]

This could be done with Mill1 and Curve/Drill Addon

 

It would be much easyer with MIll3 and Multiaxis.

 

I would probably machine it in a rotary with extra stock on the ends to removed after, as this way you don't need to make any fixtures, and I hate handling parts

[Rotary Ninja]

That's kinda what I was thinking as well. If you had a fixture there would be clamps/bolts to change out in the middle somewhere. Would be much easier to hit go and pull out parts that need minimal work to clean up the ends.

[Randy Wolff]

Here is an X-5 file. We are running Mill level 3. Material is hot rolled, nothing fancy.

CLAMP.MCX-5

[cammie]

Nice instruction. I have never seen or done anything like this. This is quite new and interesting.

__________________

machining ceramics

[Rotary Ninja]

I think if a part is beyond your ability to program and machine you really shouldn't be quoting it. What you have here is going to take some work for someone to even be able to show you how to machine it. Time is money and all. And most of the people here do this for a living.

 

That being said, you can send me a check after you read this

 

Just kidding of course. But send me a message and I will give you my address.

 

Just looking at the part it looks like you have three holes/counter-bores on three different rotations normal to the bottom face. So there are three views. Then each of those has another counter-bore normal to the top face. Three more views. Then there are the two blind holes on the bottom normal to the bottom face. Two more views. That means you will need to create 8 views to machine these features. You will also need to machine the part profile from a couple different views. Do you know how to create views to machine different sides of the part?

 

The flange on the bottom has a sharp internal corner. Often features like this are modeled for a reason (depending on how good the engineer is at understanding how the part is actually going to be made). So sometimes this sharp corner is needed, and sometimes it is just because the engineer doesn't know how hard it is to machine a feature like that. And sometimes the engineer just doesn't know any better or is lazy and didn't bother adding a rad there. Is a rad there ok? Or does it need to be a sharp corner?

 

As far as my abilities go that sharp corner is the only thing I would remotely have a problem with. But I could figure it out. The rest is all simple positioning and surfacing. Counter-sink one end for a tailstock and either machine a boss on the other end or make a fixture to secure the part to the rotary (depending on if you are using flat or round stock). Machine the profile of the part first and address that sharp corner detail. Then when the part shape is complete rotate to the 8 positions to do the holes, counter-bores, and blind holes.

 

HTH