Rough Plunging

[crashman5468]

I am trying to use a rough plunge process to cut a large pocket out of a thick piece of plate. Rather then pocket the entire opening, I am trying to make a series of cuts around the outer edge of the pocket leaving the center portion to fall out as a slug. I cant get MC to produce a tool path that doesn't try to rapid from one side of the pocket to the other rather then just follow the groove boundary I have created around the pocket. Any help would be appreciated.

[Superman]

Have you tried to do the old simple 2D_Contour ?

[crashman5468]

Yes and according to some calculations this process should eliminate almost an hour per part if I can successfully program this tool path.

[Superman]

Plunge - as in "drilling" holes around the contour ?
& then contouring again to get rid of the "cusps" ??

Can you put up some info on what you are doing ?
& what version of Mcam ?
ie
window size ?
corner fillets sizes ?
plate thickness ?
material ?
cutter sizes you want to use ? ( roughing size + finishing size )
machine specs ( ie max RPM & feedrates )

[emonje]

Plunge Milling can actually be pretty useful if applied correctly.

You save time.
You get a potentially usable chunk of metal instead of a heapful of chips.
Your machine most likely is sturdier on z axis.
With big plunge cutters you can hog out large pockets much faster.
(never done it myselfs but check out some vids on youtube)

Remember to use specialized plunge mill cutters.

We use drill to do contour "Plunge Milling" & have fished out substantial amount of usable metal over the years. You could use contouring instead in the same situation but in many cases plunge milling will be much faster.

As far I remember there's no plunge milling in Mastercam prior to x5.

[cadcam]

I am trying to remember how I did it back in V8 maybe V9 to get it to project around a circle this is a surface path option good for deep cavity pockets.
As soon as I remember I will post a sample.