Re: 4-Axis CAM suggestions?

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Fred Smith" <imserv@v...> wrote:

> There are not many parts that you cannot machine with 3 axes linear
> or 2 linear and 1 rotary...

Fred,
I take no exception to what you are saying... in production
situations you are correct. However, when doing one off prototyping
and "art", my aim is to get the work done with a minimum of my effort
and a maximum of the software and machine's effort.

Consider the case of machining a rolling pin laying on a cutting
board, the rolling pin aligned with the X-Axis. The cutting board is
square and 8 times the width of the rolling pin. A reasonable maching
strategy (if I was going to attempt this by hand) would be to set up
the blank with a rotary head aligned on the centerline of the rolling
pin. I would use the X and Y axis to surface the cutting board and
the rotary axis to surface the rolling pin and to do the undercuts on
the cutting board that are not visible from above. Simply replacing
the Y axis with a rotary or wrapping my geometry around an axis won't
let me do this.

An alternative to this using STLWorks might be to generate three
separate sets of G-code. One each, top, left and right. STLWorks
would automatically avoid gouging. Mount the blank as described above
and do three separate runs manually rotating the table 90 degrees
left and right. I could probably live with this but I don't know how
(or if) I can get STLWorks to generate everything from the same
origin and how to accurately position (X,Y,Z)the table for the
overlapping cuts.

I will likely purchase STLWorks, I don't often machine rolling pins
on cutting boards and it looks like the best of the breed in its
price range.

Roger