4th Axis Indexing on Angled Face

[Lars2024]

I am trying to make the final pass on a V-Block I am making on my 4th axis milling machine (Haas VM-2). This V-Block is double-sided. I am able to generate a toolpath that looks fine in the simulation, but when I go running it in the mill it wants to crash the cutter to the bottom of the part. I have tried adjusting my origin/tool orientation, moving my heights, looking into my post-processor, looked at a long list of Youtube videos, and looked at any forum I can find, all with no luck. I am guessing I am not doing something correctly with the tool orientation. Most of the troubleshooting I have found for 4th axis seems to be people having issues with round parts. I just want to index this part and take a finish pass to get a flat "V", this would be my last tool path on this part. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

[daniel_lyall]

Can you post that model it would easier to show you what to do with your model To do this Go to File -> Export and save as a .F3D Archive File and attach it to your next post, if you can not post the file you can PM it to me or say in your next post you can not post the file and one of the Guys that do NDA work will help.

[johnswetz1982]

Does your machine have Dynamic Work Offset (DWO) and Tool Center point Control (TCPC)?

[Lars2024]

It does not 

[johnswetz1982]

I think you have to have a new work offset for each orientation then.

[Lars2024]

I certainly hope you are wrong... I'll get in touch with Haas tomorrow. 

[johnswetz1982]

This has come up before, Previous post. You can also search these fourums for either DWO or TCP. There are not more than 2 pages mostly related to your same topic. For machines without DWO, TCP you will need to be using an offset for each tool orientation. This takes way more time, effort, and chance for mistake. That is why the option on the machine cost a couple grand but is well worth it as a time saver if you will be doing multi axis work.  

[daniel_lyall]

What 4th axis do you have and can you post the model

[engineguy]

@Lars2024 

For what it`s worth I would agree that without tha HAAS DWO function you will need to do some extra work in Fusion.

I have done what I think is similar to what you want to do but I had to do it as a number of operations (Single Setup) with a new Tool Orientation for each operation.

Having said that after drawing the shape and creating the model it only took me around 20 minutes to toolpath all the faces, it a pretty simple job, albeit with pretty much the default feeds/speeds etc, etc.

Anyway, file is attached for your interest if nothing else

Regards

Rob

[Lars2024]

I called my salesman today. He told me as long as my WCS is in the middle of the part I shouldn't have an issue. 

[Lars2024]

I thought that my origin would have to be in the center of the part? Thank you all so much for the help !

[Lars2024]

Thank you for the help ! 

[Lars2024]

My 4th axis is a HRT-210 P3

[daniel_lyall]

That is a 4th axis your salesperson is correct dead center of the 4th axis for the setup WCS.

So far (a toolpath is generating) your model has 3 bodies you only selected 2 so that's tailing cam that they are not there, so I copy-pasted the body into a new component and combined them as one body, so far it looks a lot better.

Is the 4th axis on the right side of the machine pointing to the left?

[daniel_lyall]

The only thing I can find wrong was what I said above, it should not have tried to go through the model.

What direction did you have the 4th axis set to so it went the long way or 0 to 90 to 45 to 315(-45)?

[Lars2024 · Accepted solution]

I cannot thank all of you enough for helping me out! As a new member, I was happily surprised to see how many of you provided great insight into what some of my potential problems could have been along with great critiques and pointers on other things. I certainly need to pay it forward and help fellow users in the future.  

I will attach some photos of the settings I use on my post processor for my Haas VM-2 (NGC) with an HRT-210 P3 rotary axis. I hope this helps someone in the near future avoid betting their heads against a wall as I did.

If anyone is reading this post and needs help with anything related to it, please shoot me a message, I will be more than happy to help! 

Thank you all!  

                        Lars