Mold making with Deskcam

[Jon D]

I have been using DESKkam for about 6 months now.

I have been using the mold making capabilities but have been having a few problems. I intend to make female fiberglass molds directly in particle board thus avoiding the work of making plugs by hand etc.

I draw the solid model of my part in SOlidworks and then i export it as a .STL file. I use maximum detail in the export options.

However when i run the part there are often small mistakes in the tool paths.

Does anybody have any experinces with this?


Jon

[CNCadmin]

anyone, i'd like to know myself.

[imserv]

There are no mistakes. The model is interpolated at intervals "along" the X and or Y axis. You set the intervals. If you set the sampling interval too large, you will not sample the surface enough to create a realistic final part. This is great for roughing when you leave ample finish stock, but not too good for finishing. Vertical side walls will appear to have angles.

For finishing, use a sampling distance equal to the finish tolerance you want to hold. ie .001 inch in X and maybe .010 in Y. Note this will create larger files when finishing, but that is the desired result when you want an accurate machined surface.

Fred Smith - IMService
http://www.imsrv.com