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Author Topic: Partial Circular Pocket  (Read 3323 times)

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Offline Keith

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Partial Circular Pocket
« on: October 23, 2014, 08:38:21 AM »
Need some help writing some g-code. Want to do an abbreviated circular pocket. This is to say, the center of the pocket is a circular cut leaving material within the center. Cutting outwards from this area is a spiral cut that forms the pocket.
My center is X.7376", Y is -.9757". The Z I may have only one depth because it is quite small.
Center circular material's diameter that is left after cut, is .0394
Final circular pocket diameter around the center material is .4743"
I could do it with concentric cuts but prefer the finish of the spiral cut.
I would like the two types of cuts to be one fluid motion (coming off the center circle and continuing into the spiral).
Something like the attached drawing.-Keith
Re: Partial Circular Pocket
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2014, 02:49:16 AM »
Hi Keith:
I would use the Newfangled wizards to do this job, with a little editing.
You can first make a Circular groove wizard, cutting the OD of the shape, giving the tool dia, X,Y coordinates, and circle diameter. You can specify the tool to spiral into the final depth.
Now you have the little center island, with a groove around it.
Next do the circular cutout wizard, with the same X,Y coordinates. Since the wizard starts in the center, you can watch the motion on the tool path, and note the line of code when the tool is past the center island.
With the Newfangled wizards, the two programs will be posted into the same program.
Edit out the lines you noted, when the tool is clear of the center island.

John
 

Offline Keith

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Re: Partial Circular Pocket
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2014, 08:04:22 AM »
Thanks John but I don't have a license for the New Fangled Wizards, just the wizards that came with Mach3 and the circle cut in the regular wizards just allows for the .000 place.
I might be able to draw it as a .dxf file but LazyCam crashes my machine; have never found a solution to that.-Keith
Re: Partial Circular Pocket
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2014, 01:50:56 PM »
Hello Keith:

I played around with your problem, making an island .5 OD, and a circular cut-out 3.0 inch diameter, using a 1/4 end mill. I got the direction of the cutter wrong in my first tries, but it worked. I edited out the necessary lines of the Circular cut-out and both routines had the same depth. With the NFS Wizards, you can quickly see what is going on, and go back and edit the input file, and run it again. We're talking minutes to de-bug and do a virtual "run" of a strange program combo.

One of the nice features Ron built into many of the wizards is the variable to change the ramp into the work. You can make the ramp a small angular number, and the tool will spiral into the final depth, or plunge straight down if that suits the situation.

I have been using the Newfangled Wizards for a while now, and they are well worth the price. I use them nearly every day, for all manner of quick tasks.

Considering how much money I have invested in machine tools, CNC machines, tool holders, collets, rotary tables, motors, amplifiers, and various software, over the years; the Newfangled Wizards was the best $50.00 I ever spent.

You might give the CAD program "Draftsight" a look. It is produced by the parent company of Solid Works, and is free. All they ask is for you to register your name and email with them, and it is good for a year. It has a huge database of videos available, and is their effort to get people into Solid Works. It is an absolutely 100% professional level program, and is used world wide.

I use CamBam to machine the DXF files produced by Draftsight, and find them to be a very powerful combination. I bought CamBam and Cut Viewer together, and can see a virtual image of my machining program in real time, before I cut the actual material.

If I had to do a machine job similar to your standing island in a circular cut-out, I would draw it in Draftsight, output the DXF to CamBam, and watch the virtual machine process in Cut Viewer.

John

Offline Keith

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Re: Partial Circular Pocket
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2014, 01:33:06 PM »
Yeah John, I agree I should buy those wizards. Just seems each week I'm buying something new in milling or electronics (just updated my compiler for $75).

I wound up drawing it in Rhino and used CamBam to generate the code. Came out pretty nicely and for it's size and function, may have been unnecessary but I learned something.

Interestingly, CamBam has something called 'Island Detection' in pocketing which I assume is what I wanted to do/use. Haven't figured out how that works yet but looks interesting.-Keith