Thanks for the illustration. I see what you mean now.

Sorry I was out of the shop all weekend. Anyways, unfortunately I'm not allowed to share the file with anyone outside of work, or I would! What do you mean it would have 130o of engagement?

I have a question about machining a fillet with a tool that has a bigger radius than said fillet. For example, i'm working on a mold that has a couple fillets in some corners that are pretty tight (.125). The last toolpath i ran was with a 1/2'' ball endmill leaving ".015" stock to finish (optirest). My plan was to then run a finishing program (stock to leave "0.0") with the same endmill and clean up those fillets as much as possible. Here's my problem: I used the Surface/High Speed/ pencil toolpath and ran it in the machine. As soon as it came to the fillets, the endmill chattered like crazy. It looks as if there's a lot more than just ".015" stock to clean up. Why is that? Did mastercam ignore the fillets and not bring them down to the correct size because i'm using a tool with a larger radius than my fillets?

Alright. thanks! i'll give that a shot.

Hey guys, I'm currently cutting out basically a 4 inch cavity. First i'm going in with a 1.000 indexable end mill and hogging out a bunch of material. Then coming in with a .500 endmill to clean up some fillets and corners. Lastly, i'll finish it up with a 1/2 ball endmill. My question is what kind of stepdowns should i use when i come in with the .500 endmill? I'm planning on leaving .015 stock. I'm just worried if i leave too big of stepdowns from the previous toolpath, it'll be too much stock to finish with. So does anybody have some good recommendations or a general rule of thumb to follow?

You're right, pencil unlimited looks great! is there some sort of leftover toolpath that i could use to go back and clean up the fillets though after i use my big primary finish tool? that way i don't have to start over with the pencil toolpath and run the hole thing from start to finish just to get to desired fillet with the correct endmill.

Thanks guys for the help! I used scallop as one of you suggested, and I think the toolpath is what i'm looking for (I was having some issues with flowline). But also worried about the pock marks it might leave. So I was thinking of using a ball endmill that was bigger than my fillets for finishing, and then coming back to them with a pencil toolpath with the correct size endmill. Hoping to clean up those pock marks. You guys think that would work? or is there a better way?

Hey guys, looking for any suggestions for a good finishing toolpath for this cavity. Planning on using optiarea for roughing, but not quite sure which path would work the best for a decent looking finish. I'm thinking surface finish contour or waterline are my best options. Any advice is much appreciated!

Hey guys, I know I posted a similar thread a couple days ago. But I'm really stuck on this and am desperate for some help. If anyone can take a look at this file and get a radius to go around the top edge of these letters that would be a huge help! Keep getting errors and don't know what to do! Alfa Romeo Email.mcx-8

How did you remove the lines on the solid?

Thanks, that would be great! let me know when you send it so I know if I got it or not.

Got a question for jlw, following your instructions, when creating the silhouette boundary I'm still having issues getting rid of all the line segments in the solid. I'm not sure if this is how you were getting rid of them or not, or is there another way around this?

Thanks guys for all the help! Really appreciate the input! I see what everyone is talking about and will have to try your suggestions when i get back to the computer.

Heres the File. I'm trying to put a 3/64 radius around everything Alfo Romeo Tail Light Radius Programs.mcx-8