Milling flats on the side of round stock

[Don Clement]

Originally Posted by MichaelHenry BTW, SC 2007 looks pretty appealing from a visual standpoint. Mike

I agree, SC 2007 looks prety good.

-Don

[davereagan]

Is this all a joke? It took me a lot longer to read through these threads than it would take to write a 4 line program to mill those flats on my CNC mill. Am I missing something? Is this being milled on an Integrex type lathe?

[S4 Monster]

In SprutCAM V4 we had restrictions which were used to define area's which we wanted to machine, and also fixtures (clamps - vices etc.).
In SprutCAM 2007 we describe the area's that we wish to machine using 'Job assignment' and fixtures....well using 'Fixtures'.

Under job assignment we can select the faces (Add faces) of the part which we want to machine, or we can select closed curves (Job zone) to define them, or we can use a combination of both.
If you wish to restrict machining from an area, you would select the curves in the 'Fixtures' section (or sub-section). You simply extrude the curve using the Top level and Bottom level amounts.
This is better than simple restrictions in V4 because we can give the restriction a height / depth.
You can still use curves in the 'Fixtures' section to restrict the machining to an area, but you have to select the 'Through holes' option......you need to add stock to allow for tool radius.
Note: if you are using more than one curve in this way, they have to be added as a Group i.e. in their own folder.

Don, your part looks good. You could improve things by using the scallop function.
Because of the shallow nature of the faces that you are machining, I think that you would probably get a better result by using the 'Plane finish' operation, possibly using a scallop height too....
Waterline finish is best used on surfaces that are steep, typically between 45 & 90 degree's.

HTH.

Dave

[S4 Monster]

Originally Posted by davereagan Is this all a joke? It took me a lot longer to read through these threads than it would take to write a 4 line program to mill those flats on my CNC mill. Am I missing something? Is this being milled on an Integrex type lathe?

errmm....I think that the thread has moved on a bit from milling flats. How long would it take to manually write the program to mill Don's curved part I wonder?
The original thread was started by a new SprutCAM user as a question about doing a simple part programmed using the SprutCAM software. We all have to start somewhere.....once these foundations are laid then they will be machining far more complex parts with ease.

Dave

[Don Clement]

Originally Posted by S4 Monster How long would it take to manually write the program to mill Don's curved part I wonder?

Dave,
Thanks for the help with SprutCam 2007.

Actually I did write a manual program to make the curve shown and manually machined this curve on my Rockwell vertical mill. This was before I got the Tormach PCNC. The method takes a series of cuts with a piece-wise incremental approximation of a circle using the formula: depth of cut = sqrt(R^2-d^2) + s -R where R=radius of curve, s=saggitta of base curve, d= distance from centerline of base. I made an Excel spreadsheet program to produce the coordinates for manual milling. The same Excel spreadsheet could be used to manually create G-code for a CNC program.

BTW I created a fixture model of the area I did not want to machine in Solidworks and imported the IGES file to the "Fixture" area in SC2007. So far I like SC2007 much better than SC4 but still have a lot to learn about SprutCam2007 vast capabilities.

Don Clement
Running Springs, California

[MichaelHenry]

Originally Posted by davereagan Is this all a joke? It took me a lot longer to read through these threads than it would take to write a 4 line program to mill those flats on my CNC mill. Am I missing something? Is this being milled on an Integrex type lathe?

As S4 Monster replied, I started the thread in an attempt to learn something. My apologies if that offended you.

Mike

[davereagan]

No offense at all. Maybe I am jealous. I have not taken the time to learn a CAM system and a simple job like this is probably the perfect way to begin safely. I remember when I got my first CNC and had no training other than a Bridgeport. I had to make myself use the CNC machine. It took me 2-3 hours to do a one hour Bridgeport job, but I was laying the groundwork to be able to do that 1 hour Bridgeport job in 15 minutes a year later. After knowing the control and the tooling, I felt like I was cheating compared to using a manual machine and just holding my prices steady. Then I made some machine payments and didn't feel like I was cheating any more.

Dave