Advanced 5X tool paths, lesson learned

[gcode]

I learned something today.

We build a really nasty impeller at my place.

We only build one or 2 a year and I've never been happy with my finish toolpaths

I've always used a 3+2 flowline toolpath and Ø1" ball endmill

The trouble with this approach is it requires an 18" gage length tool, it chatters, runs poorly

and requires a spring pass to get a good part. This adds about 24 hours to the cycle time.

In theory, there is room for a 2.5" button cutter with a 9" gage length if you run true 5X toolpaths.

I've tried to toolpath this vane off and on for 5 years in 5 different releases of Mastercam and never achieved

results I was happy with.

The toolpaths I was trying to use were Morph and Parallel

The biggest problem was that Tilt collision avoidance would not do what I needed.

This morning I was building a sample file to email to a couple of 5X wizards and ask for help.

While doing this, I had an idea,

I hit the Restore to Defaults button and rebuilt my test toolpaths.

In 5 minutes, I had exactly the Morph toolpaths I was looking for.

See the attached screenshots

I have no idea why this worked, but I'm sure not complaining

 

 

 

[mkd]

Sounds like interesting examples before/after to send to QC.

 

[huskermcdoogle]

5 hours ago, gcode said:

I hit the Restore to Defaults button and rebuilt my test toolpaths.

I was getting an unknown exception error today. Couldn't put a finger on why, anyway, I restored defaults and went about selecting what I wanted, voila it worked.    Sometimes that is the goto.

The advanced multiaxis paths are a great tool and I would be totally screwed without them....  I pretty much use morph and parallel for everything now.  I love the flexibility of collision control, and lead-in/out.  Not to mention you just get a nice clean path with usually decent point distribution.