Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: milling pockets with EMC

Fred Smith wrote:

>--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "david_margrave"
><david_margrave@y...> wrote:
>
>
>
>>are milling a pocket by tracing concentric rectangles in a strictly
>>clockwise or counterclockwise motion, you may find the pocket contour
>>on the opposite side of your cutter compensation setting, like when
>>you approach the very end of a zig-zag pattern and reach the pocket
>>
>>
>wall.
>
>You don't use cutter compensation for pocket roughing. Just for the
>finish pass.
>
>

Well, actually, I HAVE done some roughing by using a tool table size greater
than the cutter's actual diameter for the roughing passes, and then changing
the diameter setting in the tool table to the right value for the finish
pass.
This was actually roughing the OUTSIDE of a part outline, not a pocket.

This was something that I did by writing the G-code by hand, not using CAD,
although I have used the same trick a few times even WITH CAD. I just
create
the part program as if the tool radius was zero, and I can verify the
toolpath
with a ball point pen in the spindle before running it, by setting tool
diameter to
zero. (I now have enough confidence in myelf and the particular
programs that
I don't use the pen much anymore.)

Jon