All Round Machining

Andrew,

Like Patrick, I also divide the surface into segments usually 180deg,
and rotate my tool cords to suit, then generate the toolpath. Only
issues encountered is need to ensure u rough down enough to allow the
ball nose finishing tool to have room to work. This is especially
relevant with a 180 deg split. Have done many elliptical in cross
section balloon formers using this approach.

Another issue is that the cam software must take account of gouging in
ajoining surfaces. Be especially careful of approach and retract macros,
they can easly trip u up.

Only subscribed to group a week ago and found it useful, especially the
maxnc articles. Must admit whilst maxnc 10, has a few limitations, it is
still a good entry point to many home machinists. Use it for plastics
and some balsa, so my real desire is faster feed like 500mm/min
(20"/min!! Anybody got it up to this speed? Would like to know details?

John



Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 09:50:38 -0500
From: "Patrick Huss" <patrick@...>
Subject: Re: Digest Number 247

I have used this method many times while machining sculpture. The only
difference was that I would use 4 paths indexed at 90 degrees. I cant
begin
to tell you how many times I heard "we are artists - we don't need to
work
to those tolerances" well the fact is that we aren't just artists any
more -
we're machinists too. If your finished piece is going to be covered in
clay
or whatever, then the tolerances may not be so important, otherwise ...

Andrew, have you ever visited Bill Kreysler up in Petaluma? If not, I
would
recomend it!





Does anybody else machine parts this way (superimposing several
contoured toolpaths), or do people using more sophisticated programs
approach the problem of milling fully-round irregular parts some other
way?]

Andrew Werby