Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Richard905 on February 28, 2009, 08:53:18 PM
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Hi All:
I'd like use "Wizards--Circular Pocket" to cut a circular pocket on a small aluminum plate, I have no much machining experience, can somebody help me fill in the rest of setting?
Thank you very much in advance!
Mini-Mill: Sieg 1
3" x 3", 1/4" Th. Aluminum
Spingle RPM 1000 or 2000 CW(M3)
Units: Inch
Tool Dia. 0.375 Tool Number 1
X Center Pos. 0
Y Center Pos. 0
Pocket Dia. 1.6"
(Pocket Depth: 0.125")
Ramp Dis. ?
% Stepover ?
Feedrate ?
Rapid height ?
Feed Punge ?
Depth ?
Step Depth ?
Richard
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% Stepover ? This is the amount the cuter will move over when cutting new material, ie 50% and it will move over 1/2 cutter dia on each revolution of the pocket.
Feedrate ? This is the feedrate that you want moves in X and Y to be, suggest you look up tool manufacturers specs or download some of the calculators, this is the one I used and still do on occasions. http://www.wadeproco.com/
Rapid height ? This is the height above the work that you want rapid moves to be made, ie its the safe height that wont hit anything such as clamps.
Feed Punge ? This is the feedrate at which the cutter will plunge into the material, try setting about 1/3 of your feedrate but will be cutter dependant.
Depth ? This is the total depth you want the pocket to be, 0.125 in your message above.
Step Depth ? This is the depth you want each pass to be until it gets down to the total depth set.
Hood
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Just one thing that I found with the pocket wizard - If you are milling deep pockets (say 15mm deep with 2mm pecks) it saves a considerable amount of time if you edit the wizard produced GCode to remove the unnecessary +Z moves in between each of the step depth increments. This is not difficult to do and as I said it does save a considerable amount of machine time.
Tweakie.
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Thanks for the answers!
Hood or Tweakie, Could you give me the suggestion of those specific values based on your machining experience, because this is my first time real cutting, I need some reference values of setting, will adjust them later.
Ramp Dis. ?
% Stepover 20%
Feedrate ? (Unit?)
Rapid height ?
Feed Punge ? (Unit?)
Depth 0.125
Step Depth ?
Thanks again.
Richard
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Hi Richard,
For me the best thing about CNC is the learning experience so I recommend that you try various combinations to find what is best for your machine and material you are using.
To start, try using a piece of MDF (beaverpuke) this is soft enough to tolerate high feed rates (or mistakes) without damaging the cutting tool. As for a starting place you could try the following:-
X centre 0
Y centre 0
Pocket Dia +20
% Stepover 25
Feedrate +100
Rapid height +1
Feed Plunge +2
Depth +10
Ramp dist +2
Tool dia +4
Step depth +2
Units mm
All the best,
Tweakie.
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Tweakie, thank you for your reply, what is the difference between Feed Flunge and Step Depth?
All the best,
Richard
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Feed Plunge- This is the feedrate at which the cutter will plunge into the material.
Step Depth- This is the depth of each pass until it gets down to the total depth.
RC
(from Hood's post above)