Making a mirror image part? Will this work?

[tobybirch007]

I've got a project that I'm working on, and it has a large amount of mirror image parts. If, for example, I need to make a part that is mirrored about the Y-axis, can I just change the X-axis Dir settings in mach and run the original code? Has anyone ever done this?

Mods, if you can find a better place for this thread, feel free to move it.

[ger21]

I think it will.

You can also use the X scale DRO. Just set it to -1.

[awerby]

It's not the usual way of doing this sort of thing. Why not go back to the original CAD program, mirror the part, and generate some new code? If you do change the direction settings, you're setting yourself up for some bad surprises - jogging and MDI will be backwards, for example. And if someone else is using this machine as well as yourself, you'd better remember to set everything back the way it was before they have to deal with it, or there could be serious consequences...

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[vetsen]

Seems like you would be milling in the opposite direction. Climb instead of conventional milling, for example.

Vetsen

[tobybirch007]

Great point, never would have thought of that. Exactly why I asked. My reason for wondering was, if it would work, there's no reason to mirror and regenerating the code. Of course, whatever time I would make up in not mirroring it in cad would probably end up being lost a few times over in fixing errors or scrapped parts, so it looks like mirroring is the best bet. Thanks everyone for your input.