Mill a pipe

[Stebedeff]

Does anyone have any idea how to rough mill this pipe???
The finish is no prob at all.
Never did this before.

Thanks in advance for the help

Greetings, Stephan

[Stebedeff]

Anyone???

[schilpr]

Assuming you start with the pipe?

Big endmill, from the side should get you that a perfect opening on both sides.

First do the elongated hole though, while you still have some material to hold onto. Then use that hole and an over clamp to hold the pipe while you machine the ends.

Misschien begrijp ik je vraag niet goed, maar dit ziet er niet zo moeilijk uit.

Rob

[Stebedeff]

I need to rough mill the 2 ends. I have Mill Level 3.
The problem is that I can't use Surface Rough Pocket cause it only uses 2D containment boundary. I don't want to be milling on the side of the pipe.
As this is a round pipe the boundary keeps changing while milling deeper untill the half of the pipe. Then it gets smaller again until the bottom of the pipe
I tried Surface rough flowline but it skips the parts were the pipe is larger ( the end of the pipe).
Kind of difficult to explane. But this should be done easily.
Just can't figure out how.

[schilpr]

I didn't even check what forum you asked this question in, I don't know anything about MasterCam.. but doing this by hand is pretty straight forward.

How about if you tell MasterCam that you have a square bar with the outside diameter of the pipe and tell it to machine the pocket? it should then mill it correctly.. just will do some "air" milling where the square should be but no pipe exists.

[Superman]

Ok, pipe is finish turned ( DWG file gives outer diameter as 132mm )

milling done on machine with 4th axis
4th axis jaw gap set to A0, allowing maximum holding, slot to be aligned, and just outside, this opening
this op will do flat and slot at A0, and 1 end only

WCS=top, T/C planes=Top for flat, slot and holes
WCS=top, T/C planes=Front for arc cutout

mastercam ops for the arc cutout can be
1/- a series of 2D contours to be done at defined Z levels, you may have 6 ops to get to the centreline, upper area contour is the full slice chain, adjust the start/end by shortening the path, hole area would be 2 chains, this can also be mixed with 3D contour paths to improve efficiency ( you know you can join a 2D line onto 3D wireframe to aid a 3D path )
2/- try surface finish contour ( the end surfaces only ) as this creates paths that would do the contact areas of the drive surfaces ( use direction to give longer lead ins )



Surface rough contour would give paths similar to a 2D contour even when going thru the hole area of the pipe, so don't go this way

NOTE!! surfacing paths don't have cutter comp applied, if you want to use comp then #1 option may be best

Part is turned around in the 4th axis, time the slot to be at A180, and run the same program that did the 1st cutout ( I'd say you can picture where I'm heading )