Sometimes it is!

Actually, I am new to this stuff and have been having a hell of a time figuring out what I am doing wrong.  I hope someone can help me out, and maybe I can take another step towards actually knowing what I am doing.

I am trying to mill a circular pocket .5 deep by .8125 diameter in medium steel with my X2 conversion.  I am currently testing it with a 3/8 end mill HSS TIN coated.  I have loaded gcode form three different wizards and each has its own problems.  The closet one to working is the Mach3 circular pocket wizard by Brian Barker.  Everything is fine except that I don't know what to tell the thing for ramp distance.  I have tried to stay conservative with a 2* ramp angle is other wizards, but Brian's doesn't ask for ramp angle, just ramp distance.

I am running at 850 rpm and a feed rate of 4.5, step depth of .01


Can anyone explain what the ramp distance would be?  I hope I don't seem too stupid.

Thanks
Dan

It is the distance that the Machine will move in XY to get from where it starts to lower Z , to where Z is at cut depth.  ANGLE would be the same just defined differently. It is used to help smooth out the cut transitions.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

Thanks BR549, if I understand correctly, if can figure out the linear length of my desired ramp angle and then divide that by the circumference of the pocket to find out how many circular passes it will take to get to depth?

IF you are using a wizard it does all that for you just fill in the blanks (;-)

(;-) TP

I am using the wizard, but I am not sure of what ramp distance is.  I believe I'd I want to go a half inch deep at 2* ramp angle, the distance would be 90"?