4 Axis

[tyskkvinna]

I've been dropped head-first into Mastercam (X3) and am starting to figure some stuff out. The main thing I am doing here is 4-axis rotary cutting. I've successfully made toolpaths.. but they all appear to be finishing cuts. For example, I am making a part on a 2"D cylinder and some of the part is 1.8"D when done but another part is 1"D. Instead of making a stupidly deep cut, it tries to just do a surface finish of it... and then the simulation looks really funny and it spits out collision errors. As it tries to stick the end mill underneath the surface of the cylinder without actually cutting it.

So how do I get it to do a rough cut? Or insert multiple step-downs?

I've heard rumours that roughing cuts need to be done in 3axis... how on earth would I do that and still get everything to line up?

I would appreciate any suggestions.. thanks!

[dmealer]

A quick solution for me is make several copies of the same op, give it a bigger step over for roughing and use the 'Z stock to leave" option to make multiple depth cuts. Say if the total cut was 1" deep, on the first op I would tell it to leave .750 in Z, next op leave .5 and so on.

[thebowman]

Originally Posted by tyskkvinna I would appreciate any suggestions.. thanks!

Post the file or post a link to the file