Surface HST spiral

[Bob W.]

When I program mold cavities I don't typically have much luck with the HST Hybrid toolpath so I do my own thing with Waterline from 90 to 40 degrees, then scallop from 0 to 45 degrees and I get pretty good results. The seams in the scallop toolpath are always visible no matter how tight I make the tolerances, etc... Just the nature of the toolpath I guess. I am trying a substitute by using the spiral toolpath as a replacement to the scallop and I was curious if anyone else has every tried this and what kind of results they have had. In backplot the spiral looks pretty good up to 45 degrees and it is dead smooth with no seams whatsoever. I am running the mold cavity right now with this approach and I will post the results. I would like to end up with a cavity that doesn't need ANY post machining tune-ups.

 

It would be really nice if the scallop could be done where instead of sharp transitions they had a small radius, much like the high speed variation of the pocket toolpath. I believe it is the machine dwell at these sharp transitions that causes most of the issues.

[Bob W.]

WOW! The finish is a perfect 10! If I sanded this it would make it worse, not better :-) New strategy for me going forward.

[GoetzInd]

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

Mike

[Jeremy Herron@DBS Solutions™]

If you expand the arc filter tree there is a toolpath fillet tab that will help what you are seeing in the scallop toolpath. It probably still won't be as smooth as the spiral though.

[Tyler Robertson]

I've had really good results with hybrid, wish I could see one of your parts. Blend also works really well in many cases

[Bob W.]

I've had really good results with hybrid, wish I could see one of your parts. Blend also works really well in many cases

 

The linking violates the containment boundary all over the place which usually isn't that big of deal but it also drags the tool tip right across the top of check surfaces with zero clearance. Pretty annoying to say the least. For me to get good results from it involves creating a lot of extra geometry (offset surfaces, etc...) and it is just quicker and I get more control with the other method. Hybrid still needs work but CNC probably figures it is good enough and has moved on...

[Tyler Robertson]

The linking violates the containment boundary all over the place which usually isn't that big of deal but it also drags the tool tip right across the top of check surfaces with zero clearance. Pretty annoying to say the least. For me to get good results from it involves creating a lot of extra geometry (offset surfaces, etc...) and it is just quicker and I get more control with the other method. Hybrid still needs work but CNC probably figures it is good enough and has moved on...

 

I've seen the linking outside containment boundary, don't fault you there - I only use it in cases where this isn't an issue. There's a stock-to-leave value for check surfaces that works on the top of surfaces, maybe not on the 'sides' as they approach 90.

 

There's too much good stuff in hybrid to not add to it, I don't believe it will be abandoned in favor of a different type of path