Machining (open pocket & closed pocket)

[sylvainp]

Hi all,

 

i'm pretty new to Mastercam and coming from Smartcam.

 

i'm trying the 2D high speed machining Dynamic mill to rough out (open pocket and closed pocket)

 

In the Dynamic 2D high speed machining I set to leave stock

0.005" on floors

0.010" on walls

 

In this machining their is no option for finishing so I need to use another type of machining to mill the floor and walls.

I may also use another Dynamic mill with "rest material" option to cut the smaller radius the rough mill could not removed.

 

The I need to finish the floors and the walls of the Pocket (open & closed)

 

What would be the best way to machining (Toolpath) to mill and finish the side walls and floors of both open and closed pockets ?

 

Is there a way to also tell Mastercam to limit the size of the NC files and split them in multiple files so I can load it in the machine memory ?

 

The memory of the HAAS VF2 machine is pretty limited where I work and it's use a floppy disk to read the NC files.

 

So let's say I want my output NC files not greater than 1MB (floppy disk is 1.44 MB)

 

Thanks

[jlw™]

Idk about limiting file size but dynamic mill is probably almost my favorite path. When it suits for open pockets I usually copy it and use it to finish the floor with about 66% step over but add another 0.005in to the walls so it doesn't hit. Then chase the walls with a simple contour path.

 

Exact same for closed pockets except on the contour I set a little helix usually 0.010in on the lead in so the path is less obvious on the floor especially if I have to count on some one to match floors.

 

If dynamic mill does not suit I'll use traditional pocket and if that doesn't suit my taste I'll go old school with contour/multipass and trim that shiznit to exactly what I want. Trim lines will have to allow lead in/out.

[JAMMAN]

If you have an ancient spare computer laying around as long as it has a serial port you can drip feed your Haas relatively easily. Even XP  will do it fine. Then your program size is only limited by hard drive size.

 

I haven't done it in 3 years with mine but I wouldn't hesitate if I were facing a large program.

[JoshC]

what i like for floor finishing is the, 2d high speed --> area toolpath since this uses the exact same chaining methods as dynamic it makes it easy to switch over.

As others have mentioned you can copy your dynamic path, and change stepover, etc. but if you want a more traditional finish on the floor instead of a dynamic finish change the path to "area" found on the toolpath type page of dynamic.