Is there any way that you can add texture in Mastercam to an already modeled part? Like ridges or small bumps?

Could you possibly set up another ball mill and run a spring pass? Or change inserts and run a spring.

Very cool!

 

Is the laser engraving similar to the 3D images in crystal blocks that you can buy in gift shops/malls?

I am not sure if it's the same process or not. I will have to ask my wife's cousin if he knows. Let me get back to you on that one.

You could possibly plunge mill the whole thing with a long standard end mill and then go back with the ball end mill. Typically I have always left .005 on my surfaces for finish but I have never done anything that you are describing. A pic would help out a lot so we can steer you in the right direction.

Could you use a full radiused keyway cutter? Possibly fixture it on a lathe?

Sorry about posting so late. Basically I start with a blank piece of dichroic glass which has a metallic coating. My wife's cousin then laser engraves the image. Once I get it back I put a piece of clear glass on top of the dichroic glass to protect the image then  I fire it in a kiln that reaches about 1500 degrees. After it's cooled I glue a necklace bail to the back side of it. That has to dry for about 24 hours then it's ready to wear.

O5000(G83 & G73 DRILL MACRO)
(ABSOLUTE MACRO)
(WORKS)
 
(FORMAT G65/G66 QRZEFIH)
(Q = #17 - STEPOVER IN Z/ DOC)
(R = #18 - R PLANE)
(Z = #26 - Z START ZERO)
(E = #8 - END OF DRILL IN Z)
(F = #9 - ENTRANCE FEEDRATE)
(I = #4 - PECK FEEDRATE)
(H = #11 - IN AND OUT FEEDRATE)
(*********************************)

#100=ABS[#26]-ABS[#8]
#100=ABS[#100]
IF[[#26*#8]GE0]GOTO1
#100=ABS[#26]+ABS[#8]
N1#101=ROUND[#100/#17]
#102=#100/#101
#103=#5001
#105=#5002
G0G90X#103Y#105
Z#18
G1Z#26F#9
#106=#5003
WHILE[#101GE0]DO1
IF[#101LT0]GOTO10
#101=#101-1.
G1Z#106F#4
Z#18F#11
Z[#106+.005]
#106=#106-#102
END1
N10G0G90Z#18
X#103Y#105
M99

Give this a try.

Because they are helical gears, od is flame hardened and the lathe finishes the ID before the mills so it's round and we have something to pick up.

Then we locate off the bores to mill the parts. 

Finishing the bores after milling would require another op in the lathes.

 

I wonder if a tap with more flutes will help?

You are already adding another op by having to rework the bores.

Why don't you cut the bores after you tap?

I have reverse engineered parts using a gage pin in the spindle using a feeler gage and recorded the points. No software though.

I wrote this a few months back. It has been proven on NC plot. I wrote it for another operator in another state and he tells me that it works great. Give it a try if you cannot sort out your other macro.

O3334(ROUGH POCKET)

(ABSOLUTE MACRO)

(MUST HAVE START HOLE IN CENTER)

(PROVEN ON NC PLOT ONLY)

(FORMAT G65/G66 XYQSTRZEF)

(X = #24 - X DIMENSION)

(Y = #25 - Y DIMENSION)

(Q = #17 - STEPOVER IN Z/ DOC)

(S = #19 - STEPOVER IN XY/ PERCENTAGE)

(T = #20 - TOOL DIAMETER)

(R = #18 - PLANE)

(Z = #26 - Z START/ TOP OF STOCK)

(E = #8 - END OF POCKET IN Z)

(F = #9 - FEEDRATE)

(*********************************)

IF[[#24*#25*#17*#19*#20*#8*#9]EQ0]GOTO1000

(CALCULATE DOC IN Z)

#100=ABS[#26]-ABS[#8]

#100=ABS[#100]

IF[[#26*#8]GE0]GOTO1

#100=ABS[#26]+ABS[#8]

N1#101=ROUND[#100/#17]

#102=#100/#101

IF[#102GT[#100/2.]]THEN#102=#100

(CALCULATE DOC IN X)

#103=[#19*.01]*#20

#104=[#24/2.]-[#20/2.]

#105=ROUND[#104/#103]

#106=#104/#105

IF[#106GT[#104/2.]]THEN#106=#104

(CALCULATE DOC IN Y)

#107=[#19*.01]*#20

#108=[#25/2.]-[#20/2.]

#109=ROUND[#108/#107]

#110=#108/#109

IF[#110GT[#108/2.]]THEN#110=#108

(STORE POSTIONS AND GO TO Z START)

#111=#5001

#112=#5002

#114=#112

#115=#111

#116=#112

#117=#111

G0G90X#111Y#112

Z[#26+.1]

G1Z#26F#9

#113=#5003-#102

#120=#105

IF[#120LT#109]THEN#120=#109

#125=#105

#129=#109

#130=#120

WHILE[#101GE1.]DO1

IF[#101EQ0]GOTO10

#101=#101-1.

G90G1Z#113F#9

WHILE[#120GE1.]DO2

IF[#120EQ0]GOTO100

(CALCULATE TOOL PATH)

IF[#109LE0]GOTO20

#114=#114+#110

N20

IF[#105LE0]GOTO30

#115=#115-#106

N30

IF[#109LE0]GOTO40

#116=#116-#110

N40

IF[#105LE0]GOTO50

#117=#117+#106

N50

(CUT POCKET)

G1G90G41Y#114F#9

X#115

Y#116

X#117

Y#114

X#111

(DOWN COUNT)

#105=#105-1.

#109=#109-1.

#120=#120-1.

END2

N100

#105=#125

#109=#129

#114=#112

#115=#111

#116=#112

#117=#111

#120=#130

X#111Y#112G40

#113=#113-#102

END1

N10

X#111Y#112

Z#18

M99

N1000

M00(DATA LACKING)

My wife's cousin and I have been working on a co op project involving using a laser engraver and dichroic glass. Here is an example of a necklace I just finished up over the weekend. Is anyone else doing this type of work?

Running some parts that require a lot of pocketing and have very limited memory on this machine.

I have used Macro programming on my 18i controls with no issues but the 21i keeps puking on it.  Runs part of it then skips to next tool .

 

Wondered if anyone could see any problems with this program macro in the attached NC file.

 

Thanks in advance.

I do not see the attachment, would you be willing to try a different pocketing macro? Are you doing a rectangle or circle pocket?

I think the idea is that if u have 2 holes machined precisely at a certain distance in a previous operation and you want to use them to align your part in a next operation, it not necessarily mean that they will be aligned along one direction(almost impossible to align them by eye). I'm guessing he's asking to align a part between 2 holes machined in a prev operation and just put the part on the table as close to the desired position and pick up the misalignment with the probe. If in his setup those 2 holes needs to be aligned along Y axis then he needs to take 90 from the resulting angle. It all depends on how those holes are in his setup.

That's why as a rule you need to find the actual displacement on X and Y between holes, and use with ATAN formula, because it's practically impossible to put the part by eye on the table and the holes to be in the desired alignment. Then from here many scenarios can spawn depending on where those holes needs to be, maybe they are at 45deg( in I don't know what scenario).

Looking at my math again I believe you are right. Sometimes I get in a hurry when I write this stuff then prove it out and debug at the machine. My 10. spread would be the hypotenuse of the triangle and would not be included in an ATAN calculation so I believe you are correct. How would we then incorporate positive or negative rotation?

What if the real distance between holes is not actually 10.

T1M06(PROBE)

G0X-5.Y0

G43H1Z5.

G1Z-.2F50.

G65P9914D.5Q.1R.1

#600=#135 (X)

#602=#136 (Y)

G0Z5.

X5.

G1Z-.2F50.

G65P9914D.5Q.1R.1

#601=#135 (X)

#603=#136 (Y)

 

#605=#601-#600(X DIST BETWEEN HOLES)

#606=#603-#602(Y DIST BETWEEN HOLES)

 

#530=ATAN[#606]/[#605]

 

 

...ETC

...ETC

 

ps..1st probed hole is on left

 

I am assuming the 10.00 would be known and precisely machined. I am not sure if your example would work because if you took a 10.00 hole spread and kicked it at lets say 10. degrees the hole spread would still be 10. inches. I will have to think about it some more and maybe come up with some more math that would take into account all aspects of the holes. Great point though. Thank You.

Lets say your hole spread is 10 inches in X with .5 inch holes
We use 9914 for our hole pickup and #136 for our Y
absolute location:
T1M06(PROBE)
G0X-5.Y0
G43H1Z5.
G1Z-.2F50.
G65P9914D.5Q.1R.1
#600=#136
G0Z5.
X5.
G1Z-.2F50.
G65P9914D.5Q.1R.1
#601=#136
#602=[#601-#600]/2.
#530=ATAN[#602]/[5.]
IF[#530GT180.]THEN#530=#530-360.
G0Z5.
G91G28Z0
M00
G68#530
(WE USE #530 FOR ALL ROTATIONS)

You could also set a tolerance amount:

Ex: If your probe spits out #138 for size you could do this

N1

(Calculate cutter comp)

(Update cutter comp)

(Run tool)

(Probe)

IF[#138GT2.]GOTO2

IF[#138LT1.998]GOTO1

N2

Does anyone else out there have any cool macros they would like to share. I am always interested in new ideas.

You might want to consider Mitee-bite.

I'm not sure if it will damage your collet, more than likely it will. Your ER 32 may just have a crack in the holder and that is why your end mill is pulling out. We use shrink fit tooling here at work and never had an end mill pull out. Also, if you can't afford shrink fit a good old fashioned set screw holder works great and they are relatively priced OK. You will want to put a flat on your end mill though. It does seam that you are putting a rather large EM in a holder that really should just be used for drills.

If you needed it right away could you just surface that feature onto your parts? I know it would take longer but it may get you out of a bind.

Most of our fixturing is pretty lame, so to compensate we use rotation on a lot of our jobs. Who else here uses rotation?

Recently, I feel like I have been wasting my time with this macro stuff. I mean lets face it the CAD/CAM available now allows you to do pretty much whatever you want and not too many people even understand the concept, so it just makes it difficult to teach to others.

Have you tried a CBN tool?

I have a macro that does that if you know how to use custom macro B and your machine is capable.