3D(2.5D) milling

[GenericTool]

Hey

 

I have been using MasterCam for couple of years tho I must admit it, on very basic level(mainly drawing 2D contours). But for now I have to mill couple of old hinges for my first surface machining. 

 

My main question would be where to start? Due to asymmetry i have to tilt and turn this part in Cam, to align faces, which is something I'm not familiar. At the moment i only have the stl scan. I hope i can reverse engineer it into solid part soon.

 

I'm using Haas Super Mini Mill with 4'th axis.

 

Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/LVCKo

 

 

 

 

Best regards!

GenericTool

[Guest]

Where are you from Generic Tool?

 

DO you  have a file you can share?

[GenericTool]

I'm from Estonia. Little country surrounded by Finland, Sweden, Latvia and Russia. Can I share the scan? Absolutely! I'll share it from my Gdrive: 

 

emcx-9:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6howuQ4qhc6TlJrLUFGNndzb3c/view?usp=sharing

Stl: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6howuQ4qhc6Tk9Oa3h0dndpUWM/view?usp=sharing  (There are some holes in the mesh. I'll fix it)

 

 

GenericTool

[Thad]

MC file contains no entities.

[#Rekd™]

Hmmm. The .emcx file is either home learning edition or educational, are you producing these parts?

[GenericTool]

Hmmm. The .emcx file is either home learning edition or educational, are you producing these parts?

 

No worries. I work for the university and this is not a production as you say.

 

MC file contains no entities.

 

I must have uploaded the wrong file. I'll fix it when i get to work computer.

[#Rekd™]

The stl file is terrible quality, you will need to re-model the part IMHO.

[GenericTool]

I must say that i agree with you. Tho i believe that tool paths and the main principle behind cutting this part stays the same. If i'am mistaken i will put my effort to model solid part from this scan and then return.

[Müřlıń®]

I would make my window bigger than the stock so all the stock is removed on the roughing pass..

 

Then your scallop wont cut unnecessary stock.

 

But a better path instead of scallop would be waterline....and add cuts...

 

Perhaps use a scallop where the tool wont ramp down strait walls......or on smaller flatter areas of leftover stock.

 

End mills don't like that too much... 

[JoshC]

for how basic that looks in my opinion you could probably easily build a new model underneath that STL data. For a project like that there are multiple ways of accomplishing it. When importing STL data into Mastercam, you should notice that before you hit open there is an options button, I recommend opening the STL first bringing in the Mesh, then do a file merge and using that options button import in the lines of the mesh, this will give you selectable line geometry as well as the Mesh geometry. Looking at that hinge, If I were modeling it I would proabaly try to move into a right side plane and set my status bar to 2D and draw multiple slices in 2d, then using ruled/lofted surfaces, I would create a lofted surface using those slices that I had created. I am not sure how much of this makes sense,  If you don't understand what I am talking about with "slices" or "ruled/lofted" here is a video I found on the web of this surface creation method.

 

 

Lots of other methods too though would probably work or may even be needed though, but I think this would be the quickest and easiest way that I can think of getting accurate toolpath geometry.