Alrighty. I am beginning to like this program. I have TurboCad Pro coming but I am not sure I will be using it after playing with DolphinCad all weekend.

Anyway...my next learning cycle is to mill a lip around the bottom of a part that I am making. What is the best way to do this? Take a look at my attached drawing. The part is approximately 1" x 2" x 5/16" thick. The protrusions out the front and by the upper left and rear corners are reinforcing ribs along the bottom of the part. It will be approximately 1/16" wide and about that thick.

What is the best way to mill this? Can I tell the mill to mill down to 1/4" (leaving a 1/16" yet for the lip) and then what??? I am not sure where to go from there. Should I have the lips (or reinforcing ribs...whatever) as a separate layer? Can I set them up as their own contour? So many questions.

The attached drawing has three layers. I am working with the rocker housing layer in the blue lines for this problem.
Thanks
Mike

Open it in partmasterCAD.

then click on the "NC" button.

right click on the drawing and chose contour fromthe list.

Do not chose auto complete. (If the lip had it's own layer, you could use auto complete but not with the lip and housing combined.)

You will need ro make two contours.

One of the rocker housing including the lip, and one of just the housing above the lip.

When you go to Machining, you can chose the contour you wish to machine and the depth of cut leaving materialfor your lip.

It's late tonight, but if you don't get it I'll walk you through like I did Speedy.

Hi Mike,
I am not sure if I am visualizing it correctly as I have no perspective view and not sure about dimension or depth requirements.
Is the part not symetrical? The lip does not extend to the right the same as the left side. Will the ribs go up the sides only or will they go accross the part also? How thick will the lip be? Do you want a fillet in the corner where the lips meet the side?
I think if you can use a flat end mill to do the milling down towards the top of the lip for the full width of the confour and then step over and leave enough material to machine a fillet radius with a ball nose. Then change to a ball nose and finish the fillet with that just for the toolpath along the profile where the lip meets the side. It may take 3 different toolpaths to complete and can either be done with a toolchange in the program or several different programs.

If no fillet is needed then you can mill it like you mentioned down and leave enough material to machine between the ribs etc. and have the ribs say 1/16 high. Probably 2 toolpaths could do it.

Hi Mike,
I am not sure if I am visualizing it correctly as I have no perspective view and not sure about dimension or depth requirements.
Is the part not symetrical? The lip does not extend to the right the same as the left side. Will the ribs go up the sides only or will they go accross the part also? How thick will the lip be? Do you want a fillet in the corner where the lips meet the side?
I think if you can use a flat end mill to do the milling down towards the top of the lip for the full width of the confour and then step over and leave enough material to machine a fillet radius with a ball nose. Then change to a ball nose and finish the fillet with that just for the toolpath along the profile where the lip meets the side. It may take 3 different toolpaths to complete and can either be done with a toolchange in the program or several different programs.

If no fillet is needed then you can mill it like you mentioned down and leave enough material to machine between the ribs etc. and have the ribs say 1/16 high. Probably 2 toolpaths could do it.

Here is a picture of the part that I am copying. It does not have to be a perfect copy of this part, but just a good representation. Although a filet would be nice where the rib meets the upright part, it is really not necessary, especially if it is going to over complicate matters. Right now, I am just lucky to get parts cut with one bit and one contour. I haven't done anything where a bit change is required in the middle of a part. Although that might be sort of good knowledge to have at sometime.

The part is not symetrical. Does that matter?

I figure 2 tool paths. One for going down to the lip (1/4") and then another for the lip itself (the last 1/16").

I'm just not sure how to tell the machine to do what I want. I am sure milling this in one piece is possible...

Thanks
Mike

Open it in partmasterCAD.

then click on the "NC" button.

right click on the drawing and chose contour fromthe list.

Do not chose auto complete. (If the lip had it's own layer, you could use auto complete but not with the lip and housing combined.)

You will need ro make two contours.

One of the rocker housing including the lip, and one of just the housing above the lip.

When you go to Machining, you can chose the contour you wish to machine and the depth of cut leaving materialfor your lip.

It's late tonight, but if you don't get it I'll walk you through like I did Speedy.

Interesting. This is where I started to go last night while messing around with it. I got the contour for the housing itself done up last night, but I did not go any further with it.

When I do the contour with the lip part, am I doing a contour of the rocker housing too or just the lip part? I suspect I am going around the whole outside perimeter with the contour (following the lip instead of the rocker). That seems to make sense...

I'll play around with it some more today and see what happens.

Thanks

Mike

I'm getting there....

I got my two contours drawn. One follows around the outside of the part and the other follows around the inside. I input my thickness of each contour. When I go to the CAM part and click on ISO VIEW, the lip part is at the top of the piece instead of the bottom. How do I reverse this?

I tried to go into VIEW NC CONTOURS in the CAD part and switch the two contours. That did not do anything.
Thanks
Mike

Hi Mike,
Make sure you have the starting depth and final depths correct for both contours.From the picture it looks like there will be a thin wall around the perimeter of the part? Also make sure the view you are looking at is the correct view for the way the part it drawn in the ISO, i.e. Top view etc.
Regards,

Hi Mike,
Make sure you have the starting depth and final depths correct for both contours.From the picture it looks like there will be a thin wall around the perimeter of the part? Also make sure the view you are looking at is the correct view for the way the part it drawn in the ISO, i.e. Top view etc.
Regards,

Yep. That was the problem. Got that fixed.

NOW...how do I tell the program what depth of cut for the cutter bit to take for each pass? I can generate the G-Code but it is based on one huge pass. I don't think that will work very good. I want to set up the cutter (1/8" carbide) to make around a .030 pass on each cut as it makes it way through.

Mike

Yep. That was the problem. Got that fixed.

NOW...how do I tell the program what depth of cut for the cutter bit to take for each pass? I can generate the G-Code but it is based on one huge pass. I don't think that will work very good. I want to set up the cutter (1/8" carbide) to make around a .030 pass on each cut as it makes it way through.

Mike

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52517

Post number 4

John S.

Two ways

You can set the cutter itself up as only being able to take .030 of a cut when you make it a tool in your program.

If your endmill has say a .5" flute length and this is what you specify when you give the endmill paremeters, then when you make your contour pass, you go to the Z axis tab at the in the contour set up for your cut and set the "over ride maximum cutter depth."

I prefer to set the flute length of the cutter at the cutters real flute length, then over ride the max cut depth when seting up my contours. Others like to set max depth no matter the flute length when they set up their tooling. They feel it is a form of fail safe.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52517

Post number 4

John S.

Ahhhhh....OK....I saw that and I thought it was the overall cut depth of the milling bit. I had something like .75 in there. No wonder it took one pass.
Thanks
Mike

Arrrrrrgh! This is impossible!

OK....I finally got my drawing converted to code using the Mach3 post processor. But the code is for a whole bunch of huge circles. I cannot even see my part in there. What the heck did I do wrong? When I run the Animate thing in DolphinCAM, it looks right.

I am attaching my drawing (DXF file) and code file. I had to change my code file to a txt file so that I could upload it.

Can someone see what I did wrong?
Thanks
Mike

Where did you get the post from?

It's writing arcs as absolute.
Go into Mach and under general config change the IJ arcs from INC to ABS and it appears fine.

John S

Here is a post for Mach3 working in incremental mode.
Place in Program files >Partmaster>applications data and unzip.

John S.

Hi Mike,
Are the circles you are seeing on the Mach3 screen when you load the file? If so go to the Config. Tab on top menu, then General Config., and in the Startup Modals section look for the IJ Mode which will have 2 settings: ABS and Inc. I have found that using the other setting when the large circles show instead of arcs on the Mach screen will correct the situation. If set to Absolute just clidk the radio button marked INC and click the OK button and reloadt the file into Mach.
For the milling increments instead of full depth just set the tool in the tool setup so it cuts the desired depth(.030") and then when you tell it to cut to a depth of say .25" in the contour dialogue it will automatically figure the number of passes by the depth set in the tool setup for that tool.
Sorry I didn't see the question had already been answered.
Regards,

Where did you get the post from?

It's writing arcs as absolute.
Go into Mach and under general config change the IJ arcs from INC to ABS and it appears fine.

John S

It was in DolphinCad. I'm messing around with it some more tonite yet. I got derailed on some ebay stuff that I need to get posted tomorrow night. I copied the new posts over to Dolphin. I'll see if that works better.
Thanks for the help.
Mike

Hi Mike,
Are the circles you are seeing on the Mach3 screen when you load the file? If so go to the Config. Tab on top menu, then General Config., and in the Startup Modals section look for the IJ Mode which will have 2 settings: ABS and Inc. I have found that using the other setting when the large circles show instead of arcs on the Mach screen will correct the situation. If set to Absolute just clidk the radio button marked INC and click the OK button and reloadt the file into Mach.
For the milling increments instead of full depth just set the tool in the tool setup so it cuts the desired depth(.030") and then when you tell it to cut to a depth of say .25" in the contour dialogue it will automatically figure the number of passes by the depth set in the tool setup for that tool.
Sorry I didn't see the question had already been answered.
Regards,

Yeah, they are there when I load the file. I haven't had a chance to change the settings yet.

Oh...I learned something else. I did not realize it would automatically figure the number of passes. I was figuring it up on a calculator and then rounding down one and entering the number in the field. DOH!

I am *this close* (holding thumb and forefinger apart an 1/8") to making some chips! I was hoping on getting one of these made tonite!

Thanks for the help!
Mike

Hi Mike,
If you changed the post for Dolphin you may not need to change the settings in Mach. It will be oobvious when you load the file so I would just load the file after using the new post processor file and you will know by how it looks if it is right. I use several different programs to post files to Mach so it is just easier for me to change the IJ accordingly when the file is loaded. I guess I should correct the posts but for now this is an easy work around. Hope you are able to make some chips real soon and show us how it turns out!
Regards,

Hi Mike,
If you changed the post for Dolphin you may not need to change the settings in Mach. It will be oobvious when you load the file so I would just load the file after using the new post processor file and you will know by how it looks if it is right. I use several different programs to post files to Mach so it is just easier for me to change the IJ accordingly when the file is loaded. I guess I should correct the posts but for now this is an easy work around. Hope you are able to make some chips real soon and show us how it turns out!
Regards,

me2! This is so aggravating to being this close and not having chips fly yet. I've come across another problem. My CAM program keeps locking up. Nothing I press on the screen will do anything. I can't even X out of it. I have to right click the program on the bottom toolbar and click close. The only way to fix it is to reload the program. It just happened to me again.

I'm not sure if it is me or the program. I just closed the CAM program and opened it back up....nothing. I'm going to have to reload it to fix it again.
sigh.
Mike

I think I got it!

I got the code loaded and it looked great. I started the mill and it got half way through and the stupid bit broke. I was taking a chance and taking a little deeper cut and running the feed a little faster than I did on my first parts that I made. Guess I better back it off. I am running an 1/8" carbide with coolant and running the spindle as fast as it will go...around 4000 RPM. I have an X2 upgraded with the LMS pulley kit.

I gotta admit, the part that did get cut looked REALLY good. I had made a couple of the parts when the mill was manual and there is no comparison in the cleanliness of the parts now.

I'll post a pic once I get a good one cut. I am hoping tomorrow night now!
WooHoo!
Mike

One more question...actually three...

When I did my contours in the CAD portion. I have the arrows going around the part in a clockwise rotation.

Does that matter? Is that telling me whether the part will be climb milled or conventional milled?

If so, what did I just do?

Mike

Hi Mike,
I think what you are seeing is the direction the toolpath was mapped or drawn out shown by the arrows, but this is not necessarily the direction you will have to use.
You should select the correct direction in the dialogue box for the contour, profile etc. that you will be cutting. When filling out the dialogue boxes take the time to make sure anything that needs to be filled in or selected is taken care of. It is easy to be in a hurry but better to take enough time to get it right.
If you simulate the toolpath you will be able to see if there is something wrong and go back and double click the operation and make any needed corrections. I like the ISO view for viewing the simulation as is usually shows things form a better perspective, but they all work good.
Regards,

I SEE THE LIGHT! LOL

I got it milled today! Pretty cool and I think I sort of understand what I am doing now. I needed to make the part about 1/16" narrower, but that took me just a few minutes now that I have things somewhat figured out. I'll redo the contours and make three more of these buggers. They are rocker housings for a model Cummins 400 engine that I am building. It is a non-running model though.

I've attached a pic so you guys can see what the finished item looks like

Thanks for all the help. I could not have figured this out so quickly without all the advice and replies that I have received.

Mike

Hi Mike,
Wow, it looks very good! It would be kool to see the whole project when you get it done too. Glad to be able to help in any way. Keep us posted on your progress.
Regards,

Hi Mike,
Wow, it looks very good! It would be kool to see the whole project when you get it done too. Glad to be able to help in any way. Keep us posted on your progress.
Regards,

Thanks. :) I think it came out pretty decent considering I just started using the program not much over a week ago. I'll get more parts posted as I get some more of this made.

I had to redraw the part after making the first piece. I had to move the whole front edge back about 1/16" and the two columns up front had to move back about 1/32" or so. There was a flat spot on the very front of them being milled when the flange contour got milled. I just had to back them up a little and get them away from the front edge of the flange. I'm running another one tonite and see what happens. I still need to do a drilling contour for the bolt holes, but that is easy enough to do (been there, done that already).

And the adventure continues....
Mike