Help estimating... how many DAYS will this g-code take?

[Sporqster]

I'm making some center caps for some custom rims I'm working on for Sue (Sue is my WRX). I fooled around and came up with this G-code for cutting them. I'm planning on using a stainless engraving bit with what appears to be a 60-degree point on the end. Material is aluminum and tooling is a little Sherline.

The concept is that the finished cap can be powder coated, then the powder coat sanded off to make the letters and symbol stand out in bright silver. Polished, then clearcoated, oughta be pretty bling when complete.

I'm thinking I'll just immerse the workpiece in a dish full of motoroil since I don't have a real cooling system for this little mill. Just judging from the size of the file and complexity, it's going to take a freakin' century to do this.

Maybe there's a better way to cut this out... Maybe I should post this in the RFQ section... but anyone got some software that will figure it out for me? It would be much appreciated.

[nuplowboy]

What's your feedrate (in/min or metric equivalent)? I ran it through Cutviewer Mill (can be downloaded free to try) and it spit out over 60,000 minutes, but I'm not sure what feed it assumed though. They look pretty cool. There might be a way to do a roughing cut with a ball mill or end mill first, then switch to the 60 degree cutter for later passes. I can't help too much with the details, just learning myself.

[Sporqster]

Originally Posted by nuplowboy What's your feedrate (in/min or metric equivalent)? I ran it through Cutviewer Mill (can be downloaded free to try) and it spit out over 60,000 minutes, but I'm not sure what feed it assumed though. They look pretty cool. There might be a way to do a roughing cut with a ball mill or end mill first, then switch to the 60 degree cutter for later passes. I can't help too much with the details, just learning myself.

in/min... 60,000 minutes... hmm, 1000 hours, so 6 weeks non-stop cutting. maybe I need to rethink this design a little...

[ChrisJ]

I tried viewing your attached document and did not see a file extension. What format is the file in?

Chris

[kong]

Cutting at 1 IPM at 0.1" deep would not be the best solution. Use an endmill first to rough out the shape, then finnish with the v-bit at a far faster speed.

[bobgerman]

There is nothing wrong with the design. How did you come up with this G-code? nuplowboy had it right about doing a roughing operation first. You could probably get someone to run this through MasterCam or one of the others to get a roughing and finish G-code. If the G-code was generated with only a fine finishing tool defined that is all you'll get. A ball or bull end-mill will rough this in a matter of a couple minutes, cutting the total run time down considerably.

Thanks to nuplowboy for the Cutviewer Mill info. Cool software!

[Sporqster]

Originally Posted by bobgerman There is nothing wrong with the design. How did you come up with this G-code? nuplowboy had it right about doing a roughing operation first. You could probably get someone to run this through MasterCam or one of the others to get a roughing and finish G-code. If the G-code was generated with only a fine finishing tool defined that is all you'll get. A ball or bull end-mill will rough this in a matter of a couple minutes, cutting the total run time down considerably. Thanks to nuplowboy for the Cutviewer Mill info. Cool software!

Thanks guys- I'm going to look at getting a bigger tool in there and then finishing with the engraving bit. My trouble is in my limited collection of tools and limited capabilities of a little mill with minimal torque. Unfortunately, my smallest end mill is 1/4" :-(

I made this g-code brute-force method. googled for images of the logos, traced them with polylines in autocad, hatched out the areas to be removed, offsetting as I went down to get the edges sharp, then imported the DXF into Mach 2 and converted it. Not very elegant, but I'm working with the software I've got. You know what they say, when your only tool is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail!

Oh yeah, and thanks for the cutviewer software - fun to watch a 6-week program done in about 2 minutes!

I'll post my original autocad file on here later tonight. (I don't have it with me here at work)

[ChrisJ]

I guess I should have read your title of this post better and I would have known what the file format was in.

[Sporqster]

So what would be reasonable feed rates for this code and (2) what do you guys think?