v26 lathe grooving!!!!!!!

[kawman]

i was wondering if someone could help me out with grooves, i have tried diffrent tool comp settings but nothing seems to to cut it correctly, i have attached the file any help would be much appreciated, maybe AL or one of the other bob-cad guys? also why does it rough going towards the chuck, and finish the opposite way? Is there some setting that im not seeing?

Similar Threads:

• Need Help!- Face Grooving/Turning on V3/V25 Lathe
• Where to get? - Lathe combo turning/grooving...
• Need Help!- CNC Lathe threading w/ grooving tool
• Lathe gurus--face grooving woes
• GibbsCam and Grooving-Lathe Module

[Randall]

looked at your part. part of it can be done with lathe, looks lik there would be a mill used too. Is this a bolt carrier.
Randy

[kawman]

there are some holes that go into the face, but thats about it for mill work , its a bronze bushing of some sort, with OD and ID grooves, and its being ran on a okuma lathe with dual turrets, which i still havent figured out exactly how to get that to post correctly

[mossmachine]

I'm currently going thru the same issue. It seems that bobcad-cam is only capable of taking one side of a grooving insert into consideration when generating the toolpath. I'm currently waiting on tech support to get back to me on it. I've seen this question posted on other forums where bobcad reps frequently answer questions / plug their products but nobody ever touches this issue. Why?

[mossmachine]

After a week of going back and forth with tech support I still have no answer as to why bobcad is unable to generate a usable groove path. The tech guy kept telling me it looked great in the simulator even though the numbers in the post don't add up. Then he says when he zooms in on the sim he can see the undercut/step im talking about. I pointed out the numbers in the post that are causing it to undercut and he tells me he does not know how to read g-code! How are you working tech support for a computer aided machining system and don't know anything about g-code programming? Anyway... that aside he convinced me he'd have someone else look at it with him and he would get back to me. I just spoke with him today and all he did was draw a representation of the groove tool, plot points along the toolpath at the posted numbers, and line the theoretical tool tip along with the drawn tool up to the plotted points which did nothing to solve the toolpath. All it did was prove that the calculated path is still wrong because now you can actually see the tool representation overlapping the part geometry where it undercuts. The we go through changing the system tolerances all the way down to .0001 (the lowest it can go) and re-calculating and re-posting it all and just gives the same bad toolpath. His final statement after wasting all this time is that he still doesn't understand why this is happening and he will try some more things with somebody else's help.

This issue has caused a lot of wasted time and effort already and I feel as if bobcad-cam might just be that. A waste of time and effort. If anybody can prove me wrong (and I sincerely hope someone can)
then please do. I'm attaching the file with the tool representations in the layers here so anybody can take a look at it. If this problem cant be solved and bobcad-cam is incapable of producing usable toolpaths in their lathe module then my company will be seeking a refund or to sell our software and seats to somebody who doesn't mind having a cam system that puts out paths that need to be completely re-written by hand.

[billb95]

Kawman

I have looked at your OD Groove feature and the main problem is you have a lead out in X and Z which will not work in a groove.

I personally use system compensation rather than machine compensation as you can see the tool path "as is" on the screen.

The finish tool path runs both ways. If you check the code it starts at the chuck end, runs down the part close to the end of the groove, retracts to clearance and then finish cuts towards the chuck.

Hope that helps

[billb95]

Mossmachine

I have looked at your "groove path by lines" and it looks OK from the geometry selected.

If you need a smoother finish on the two OD radius edges you need to add a short straight extension in Z of say 0.050" to the OD at each radius.

Hope that helps

[mossmachine]

The direction of the toolpath is not what is causing it to cut the radii screwy. And using leader lines is the first thing I thought of. It doesn't prevent the funky toolpath either. What im asking is why all the weird taper moves on straight lines and shoulders? Why is it doing 2 liners moves and 2 arc moves (that do not follow the real geometry of the part) to make 1 radius? The code should look like this..

G0 X1.05 Z-.61
G1 X1. F.015
G2 X.98 Z-.6 R.01
G1X.9
Z-.555
G0 X1.05
Z-.54
G1 X1.
G3 X.98 Z-.55 R.01
G1 X.9
Z-.535
G0 X1.05


I know that its in the post to write I and Ks instead of Rs but that's not the point I'm getting at. Below is the same file with leader lines attached.

[billb95]

The tool path generated would be good enough for me, but if you need a better tool path go to preferences, then settings part, then system and change the Lathe cam tolerance to 0.

Compute the tool path (this will take much longer) and then post.

This should be closer to what you want.

Hope that helps