Need Help!- Pocketing - Spiral?

[jimmyaz]

Hey guys,

I have been trying to search how to change the cutting style of pocketing. Instead of pluge down in the middle and make one complete circle and move X and do it again....

I would like to do pocketing like Spiral drill... is this possible?

I am playing with the LeadIn, LeadOut but can't figure it out.

thanks

[Starleper1]

This guy wrote a plugin to do spiral anything really....

Spiral PollyGone

[UUU]

Check you are on the current version. I had a hole in a part that didn't do a spiral on the free unrestricted old version, but on the latest trial version it did a spiral cut just fine - this was selecting a "drilling" machining operation. It wasn't a lead in or out move, there was an option to select the drill.

The Syles overview video, although it's covering a more advanced area, does show the spiral milling operation.

I've only just started on CamBam, so I'm still using up my trial sessions, but I'm rather liking it.

[jimmyaz]

Hi guys,

For the Spiral Script, is there a instruction showing how to use it?


UUU: I only see the Spiral option when using DRILL operation.. Am I missing something, as Drill and Pocketing is different?

What I want is to generate a pocket.. but the toolpath would do a SPIRAL cut, so it does not move the Z up and down every circle.

[UUU]

Ah, yes I see now. I have only seen spiral used for round holes in CamBam. Non-round pockets I've only seen the tool stop once each circuit to plunge down. I sometimes do what you are suggesting when hand-coding.

[Dougal]

On the recent version, change the leadin move to "spiral" and set the angle to "0". It will spiral down to height then do a full pass at the final height. Works great for me.

What I would really like is a spiral back out, but I haven't got that working yet.