Cutting chamfered edges

[80083r]

Hi,

I am trying to cut a 45 degree chamfer on the edge of a small part, and no matter what settings I change, I cannot cut all the way to the bottom of the chamfer.

This is not simply breaking the edge, so I have to use a roughing or profiling pass to cut the chamfer - it will require 2 passes of the cutter to make the full depth. To complicate matters, there is a hole through the 45 degree face (previously cut).

I can use a roughing pass to cut the face close to what's required, but it always leaves a lip at the bottom. The chamfer cycle will only do a single pass. No matter what I set the depth to (or whether it's associative or not) it makes the same cut.

Any ideas?

[80083r]

Have kinda figured it out. This is not as simple as it should be.

I offset the far edge of the stock, and drew geometry to contain the toolpath .25" away from the stock. Then I used a roughing pass with a square endmill on the face, and a profile operation on the chamfer, using the offset line as a containment boundary.

[greenweanie]

we do alot of 1/4 - 1" beveling on our parts. I usuall just use the chamfer operation, then go to "sequence" and open up that operation. click on "profiling" and edit that. so if i had a .5 break edge on a 1" thick part. i would put my "XY offset" to -.05. under "depth" tab i would set my depth to -.6 to make sure there is no step at the bottom of the chamfer. "cut increment" to .25 because that is the most i can get out of my chamfer mill. and last i click on the "contouring" tab and put 45 (assuming it is a 45 deg chamfer) in the "draft angle" box.

[80083r]

Ok - but what feature do I select to do the chamfer op? My solid model already has the chamfer on it, and if I use a loop or a face feature, I get an error that says - "invalid element in loop" or something. Do I NEED to draw a line to chamfer along? It's only one edge I want to chamfer, the rest of the part needs to stay square.

Thanks for the help - I'm getting closer.

[greenweanie]

i am sorry, i don't know the answer to that, we just have the entry level package, so i do everything in wire frame.

[John Holmes]

You can draw a line where you want to chamfer or you can create a face feature on that face. If you are running 2009 r2 I can show you how if you post the file. I have found that many times when using features to profile the cycles do not react as you want them to or think they should. I usually put a piece of wireframe on it to make it easier.

[80083r]

Drawing a line and using profile seems easiest (that's how I finally did it) - I found you just have to play with the depth to make the actual cut you want.

It should be easier, I think. The real annoyance I have with Edgecam is how much of the thinking it tries to do for you. I prefer a simple set of controls, and let me do the thinking

Thanks a lot for all the help guys!