help with side milling

[Anonymous]

hi there. i am trying to mill a pattern of 5 sides around the index axis as per the model below. however the other picture shows what i am getting in the simulation where it is over cutting towards the centre of the component. i have done this with a swarf cut but the boss insists this is the way he wants it done.... as a side feature. i have included the Zip file with this post. if any of you have the solution  to this i would be eternally grateful.

[kelbie.ockey]

After fiddling with your part for ~5 min, I have to agree - Swarf is absolutely the best way to cut this. If you are worried about wanting stepovers and/or stepdowns in the cut, you can always create multiple swarfs - each with a decreasing allowance value, and multiple cuts if you would like a stepdown to the toolpath. 

That being said, I have a couple of ideas I'll mess with regarding the side feature. I think the core issue here is just the maintenance of the tool always wanting to point at the index axis. It looks like your model should at all points, but I'm guessing that something about the 'wrapping' that FC is doing isn't quite translating that as we would like.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I will await some alternative strategies then hopefully.

[kelbie.ockey]

I haven't been able to get a side feature to really work. I would recommend pursuing the swarf option. Is there a particular reason you are not allowed to use that toolpath? It could potentially work in this situation. You could make also try machining from the z, which would make the program a whole lot easier.

[Anonymous]

Personally I would have thrown this on a mill and set it up to do multiples to avoid too many part changes. It shouldn't take to long to surface mill the top and the rest is just straight milling. or it could be done on a four or five axis machine quite quickly and efficiently.

[Anonymous]

It's on a Swiss lathe so each part is about 30 seconds bar to finished part
without the milling and just over 3 minutes with the milled features done
as a swarf cut. My boss wanted them done without the swarf strategy to see
if it could be done........ I'm thinking maybe not.

[rfuentes]

are you using featurecam swiss or partmaker

[Anonymous]

Featurecam Swiss.....

[rfuentes · Accepted solution]

did u figure it out?

[Anonymous]

No everyone else said same as I did initially better to do it as a swarf
cut. Just would be ideal to manage it in one cut without fanning marks. It
takes about 3 mins to cut with the multi pass tick box checked. I have no
idea how to minimise the fanning marks. So I guess multi pass swarf cut it
is then.
Thanks for your help. 👍😁