Spot drilling ignored over counterbore

[gsnorcal]

Hi,

I'm trying to do drilling and counterbores for socket head cap screws. My *desired* procedure is to:

1) spot drill the center of the hole to some shallow depth
2) thru drill the clearance diameter for the SHCS
3) pocket the hole down to the correct depth (counterbore)

Sprut seems to always ignore the spot drilling. I suspect it is too smart for it's own good. It thinks, "hey, this material will be removed in the pocket, so I won't bother."

I spot all my drill holes and they always work fine. But they never work over pockets.

Anyone have a solution?

Thanks,
Dave

[Gerry Sweetland]

I have attached a zipped SP project showing the 3 steps you have listed above.
This was just quick and dirty, no feeds and speeds and I have the thru hole drill going substantially below the part but you should get the idea. This seems to work fine, spot drilling, thru hole and pocket for the head of the SHCS.
Gerry

[gsnorcal]

Thank you Gerry. I do see that yours works. I tried to break it and I can't. I'd start comparing it to mine and see where the difference lies.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Gerry Sweetland]

Originally Posted by gsnorcal Thank you Gerry. I do see that yours works. I tried to break it and I can't. I'd start comparing it to mine and see where the difference lies. Thanks again, Dave

You're welcome Dave
Gerry

[MetalShavings]

When you say that SprutCAM ignores the spot-holes, do you mean than it does not include that particular code when you run your post processor or something else?

On more than a few occasions when I did my post processing of a project that involved alot of hole drilling, (including spot drilling) I found that SprutCAM generated the code but the X and Y positions and Z depth of my holes was left at zero; so, even though my mill went to the the X and Y positions, the hole was never drilled because my spindle just spun at the level of my "Safe Height."

I think I finally figured out why but, any attempt to explain it in writing tends to make it sound far more complicated than it really is. The reason it happens is still a mystery to me though.

I found when this happens that if I go into the Simulation mode and click the "+" hole drilling operation icon, it then shows hole number one, two, three or however many holes you have.

I then click on the "+" icon to the left of each hole to further expand the steps that make up that hole drilling routine. At the bottom of the list that makes up the drilling routine of any particular hole is a line that states something to the effect; "Drilling Cycle OFF."

By double clicking that last line, it opens up a small dialog box that list various aspects of that particular hole. At the top of that list is a drop down menu with the word OFF, ON, DRILL, etc..

When I do a spot drill routine I generally use the "Chip Break" selection or the "Deep Drill" selection. Don't ask me why, I just do. I have no reason for it. It may be the cause of the problem now that I think of it but, be that as it may, I've found that even with any of the other drilling routines I still occasionally have he problem with SprutCAM outputting incomplete code for these drilling routines.

So anyway, back to that list. When I've selected the Chip Break or Deep Drill routines, I choose the "DRILL" option on that drop down menu. If I've selected just a regular Drill routine, I select the "ON" option on that drop down menu.

After you make your selection of "ON, DRILL or whatever, you have to kit the "RETURN" key for it to take effect. Then I do run my post-processing to check to see if the problem was corrected.

My feeble attempt to explain how I go about getting around this problem, probably just added more confusion to what you're going through. Sorry about that. I'm sure there are much more quick and easy ways to fixing what needs fixing when using this cursed software. The way I've listed is just the way I've managed to get around this problem.

There have been times when even that didn't work. I then had to go in and manually edit my code.

MetalShavings

[RTP_Burnsville]

MetalShavings,

Thanks for that explanation. I had this problem in the past but luckily it has not occurred in sometime. I'll try to remember your comments the next time it happens.

Robert