Helical Machining?

[tnik]

will surfcam output a helical tool path on a hole, short of drawing one and doing a on contour tool path? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

[JimW]

2Axis Contour has a Helical plunge on the Cut Control tab under Plunge Type.

[tnik]

yea, I was looking more for helical tool paths. I have a 6" hole I have to mill out and a helical tool path would be faster than doing a standard Z step down.

[camaru]

you can use groove mill, set the plunge type to ramp and put whatever angle you want to use. Using groove mill this way will allow you to kind of tree pan material away.
note1 the contour has to be closed so a bore works fine.
note2 on the cut control page if you want to leave some stock, roughing, simply make the width parameter .02 wider than the dia of the cutter you are using.

[tnik]

thanks camaru, that worked perfectly..

[surfcam_ken]

I'll second that Thanks camaru, worked for me here also.
But I have a question. I did not see away to add a exit move (lead out, normal move, etc) to the end of the toolpath so the tool will not drag along the side wall when it retracts. Has anyone done this? Thanks in advance.

[camaru]

Yep, there is no automatic way but, there is a graphic tool path editor inside Surfcam that works pretty good. To use it you select the tool path you would like to mod and pick the icon "edit nc", it looks like a pencil with an eraser. You can use the down arrow key or you can use the mouse to pick an area to edit. I strongly recommend that you verify the tool path always when using this process. The graphic editor allows you to insert moves, delete moves, edit moves (accept arcs). Display the tool path and then draw a point where you want the path to move to. To put an exit move into the tool path go to the edit nc process, then mouse pick the rapid out move, and use back up (use the up arrow) until it goes to the end of the move then insert a line move, and pick that new point you made earlier, you must also edit the rapid position accordingly. Hope this helps

[championp]

I have been using contour and helical plunge together on holes. Set your z depth and z steps for the full amount. make sure you pick your plunge point as the center of the hole. Then you can put lead in and lead out for the finish pass.

The tool will helix in and then do a cleanup and or finish pass at full depth. You may (will) have to adjust the radius of your helix to get it close to the finish size as it ramps in. In velocity 3 you can save this process and give it a name. I have one for 3/8-16 counterbores that works great, so now I don't have to change the lead in/out, ramp angle etc each time I have a counterbore to machine.