pocketing without raising to safe clearance?

[dwneumann]

I am using 2D pocketing to enlarge a drilled hole. It works well, but it's really slow to have the cutter raised to safe clearance Z after each and every circular orbit around the hole. Is there a way to get MadCAM to create a descending spiral path without raising the cutter up and out of the hole after each spiral? (it is a through-hole and there is plenty of room in the hole for chip clearance). I tried setting "Safe Clearance" to 0.0 but that still raises the cutter to Z=0.0 (i.e. the top of the hole).

Can I at least get it to go around the hole several times before raising the cutter?

thanks.....

[Dan B]

Hmmm....

This should be possible, but I don't see how at the moment. Hang on, I'm going to dig into this a bit deeper.

Thanks,

Dan

[williamsmotower]

Great question! I've been wondering this too!

[Dan B]

I've got good news, bad news, and good news:

Yes, you can accomplish a helical mill path in madCAM 4.3. The bad news is that it's not that straightforward. You need to create a helix in Rhino where the pitch is equal to your step down. Then use the 2D profiling path to follow the helix all the way down the hole. The good news is that the type of path you were looking for is going to be added to madCAM 5.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[williamsmotower]

Thanks for replying Dan. That's not too difficult for now.

Any guestimate on madcam 5 release? Within months... A year?

[Dan B]

It won't be real soon. Although it's coming along nicely, there are still a lot of areas that will need attention. I can tell you this for sure, you are going to love the workflow compared to 4.3, especially if you have multiple machines.

Dan

[Neil M]

I have a workaround I use. Using a 2.5 pocket operation I select the curve to pocket, the depth to pocket and the step down to the same. I then get one continuous helical path all the way to the selected Z depth - you have to adjust your plunge rate/spindle speed to suit but I've used it many times.

[dwneumann]

I have a workaround I use. Using a 2.5 pocket operation I select the curve to pocket, the depth to pocket and the step down to the same. I then get one continuous helical path all the way to the selected Z depth - you have to adjust your plunge rate/spindle speed to suit but I've used it many times.

This is exactly what I was trying but if you set StepDown equal to hole depth how do you set the depth of cut?

Creating a siral curve in Rhino, and following the curve with a profiling path looks like a good workaround.

[OCNC]

This is exactly what I was trying but if you set StepDown equal to hole depth how do you set the depth of cut?

Adjust the depth of cut by adjusting the ramp angle on the Traverse Tab. A smaller angle equals a smaller depth of cut.

Chris