John, as always really awesome dude! I find your videos invaluable and such an asset to the CNC community for a novice CAM user such as myself. Every NYCCNC video is a learning experience. Thanks dude. Must donate to your Patreon.
Good stuff. Trick 10 - this is where HSM Works in Solidworks has a huge advantage over F360 as you can render the stock in 6 different modes, one of them being "Very Good" and it gives the highest resolution.
Here's a tip, when you want to edit a protected toolpath, just go ahead. it will automatically unprotect it after the warning. No need to stop and unprotect it. Also saves time if you don't actually change anything, hit escape instead of OK and it still retains the protection, so you don't have to reprotect it unless you did change something.
That 3d software is alot like Powermill. For part area and the runner channels you should use contact boundary so you dont gouge the seal off. The channel in Powermill i rough out with constant z then corner finishing with ball and do stitch up and down. Gets it nice and constant stepover. That looks like small and sharp corner part. I'd just rough, quick semi finish part area then EDM part area, done
It amazes me how easy something this complex is today with good CAM. Thinking about writing straight out G-code for this makes my head hurt. Just wondering how many lines were generated for this model?
Great stuff!! any suggestions for getting going on my first Aluminum work? (video) I CNC wood all the time, but have never jumped into Aluminum work. I want to start small and simple but speeds and feeds worry me for my first run at it. I am using fusion 360 as well
Hi guys something very useful (ON MODELING MODE, unfortunately does not work in CAM) when measuring easy faces like he does here, is just click on them holding shift and just look to the bottom right side. No need to open the inspect tool. Most of the values are there like radious etc etc...
Eh. Milling that entire cavity is really not was pencil is for. Wouldn't use it for that at all. Pencil is meant as a final cleanup path to get the last bits of material out. Morphed spiral will work well, but really you should be using multiple types of paths on different sections of the mold rather than trying to get everything in a single shot with a single tool path. Parallel in the long uniform sections, morphed spiral in the complex sections, and then use pencil to get the last final corners and edges.
I Agree but wouldn't it be nice if there was an 'auto finish' path that just used all of the available strategies and saved messing about? I use scallop all the time for things that don't really matter because it's one operation and it takes a lot less time to program and is reliable. Some of the one off stuff that I make it's just easier and faster to let it run a few minutes long with a fine scallop pass than to spend many extra minutes getting several path to blend nicely. Also if you're not going to finish to smooth and are going to leave visible scallops running just one operation leave much prettier toolmarks than a several blended together.
Widget Works Manufacturing Inc. oh agreed. And Solidcam actually has the ability to combine constant Z path with a few select surfacing paths together. Really all it does is take 2 individual paths and lists them in a single tool path op. It's not as handy as I thought it was going to be, since you have to define the constant Z and the other path. It's just all on a single page is all. And personally I'm waiting for the "make whole part" tool path 😆 And for non mold, cosmetic only surfaces I usually just run a scallop over the whole thing as well and keep the step over just small enough that shit will still buff out. For mold work though it should really be done in sections with meticulous care. Maybe not for this particular mold, but in general molds are really finicky. Every little thing shows up
You saved me so so so much frustration with the shift , measure trick. Thank you.
John, as always really awesome dude! I find your videos invaluable and such an asset to the CNC community for a novice CAM user such as myself. Every NYCCNC video is a learning experience. Thanks dude. Must donate to your Patreon.
All of these tips are great and your whole vibe and video quality are too. Thanks so much.
Great tips this week. Thanks for sharing them with the world.
Thank you! Very helpful video
Your video content and production quality continue to amaze me John!!
John,
These tips are great. Look forward to every video.
Great video, thank you
GREAT tips! Thx, A LOT! :)
Good stuff. Trick 10 - this is where HSM Works in Solidworks has a huge advantage over F360 as you can render the stock in 6 different modes, one of them being "Very Good" and it gives the highest resolution.
Here's a tip, when you want to edit a protected toolpath, just go ahead. it will automatically unprotect it after the warning. No need to stop and unprotect it. Also saves time if you don't actually change anything, hit escape instead of OK and it still retains the protection, so you don't have to reprotect it unless you did change something.
this man's living in the future, just about every other tip was news to me
have a look at morph spiral
That 3d software is alot like Powermill. For part area and the runner channels you should use contact boundary so you dont gouge the seal off. The channel in Powermill i rough out with constant z then corner finishing with ball and do stitch up and down. Gets it nice and constant stepover. That looks like small and sharp corner part. I'd just rough, quick semi finish part area then EDM part area, done
It amazes me how easy something this complex is today with good CAM. Thinking about writing straight out G-code for this makes my head hurt. Just wondering how many lines were generated for this model?
Its easy to make a program that you don't run. 3d ain't easy, software as limits, whick you learn quick running the programs
Great stuff!! any suggestions for getting going on my first Aluminum work? (video) I CNC wood all the time, but have never jumped into Aluminum work. I want to start small and simple but speeds and feeds worry me for my first run at it.
I am using fusion 360 as well
Aluminium is easy, pretty hard to mess up, very forgiving. Steel different story
How would you chamfer 3 top edges of a rectangular block? Fusion will only let me chamfer all 4 edges.
link for rob's channel?
Hi guys something very useful (ON MODELING MODE, unfortunately does not work in CAM) when measuring easy faces like he does here, is just click on them holding shift and just look to the bottom right side. No need to open the inspect tool. Most of the values are there like radious etc etc...
Eh. Milling that entire cavity is really not was pencil is for. Wouldn't use it for that at all. Pencil is meant as a final cleanup path to get the last bits of material out.
Morphed spiral will work well, but really you should be using multiple types of paths on different sections of the mold rather than trying to get everything in a single shot with a single tool path. Parallel in the long uniform sections, morphed spiral in the complex sections, and then use pencil to get the last final corners and edges.
I Agree but wouldn't it be nice if there was an 'auto finish' path that just used all of the available strategies and saved messing about? I use scallop all the time for things that don't really matter because it's one operation and it takes a lot less time to program and is reliable. Some of the one off stuff that I make it's just easier and faster to let it run a few minutes long with a fine scallop pass than to spend many extra minutes getting several path to blend nicely. Also if you're not going to finish to smooth and are going to leave visible scallops running just one operation leave much prettier toolmarks than a several blended together.
Widget Works Manufacturing Inc.
oh agreed. And Solidcam actually has the ability to combine constant Z path with a few select surfacing paths together. Really all it does is take 2 individual paths and lists them in a single tool path op. It's not as handy as I thought it was going to be, since you have to define the constant Z and the other path. It's just all on a single page is all.
And personally I'm waiting for the "make whole part" tool path 😆
And for non mold, cosmetic only surfaces I usually just run a scallop over the whole thing as well and keep the step over just small enough that shit will still buff out.
For mold work though it should really be done in sections with meticulous care. Maybe not for this particular mold, but in general molds are really finicky. Every little thing shows up
mill it out and show us?
Michael because they have a mill free to mill this just so youcan see it
what?
Michael yes