Help with 2D contour (cutting off corners)

[nealkriegler]

Hi All,

I have a part I'm trying to cut out using a 2D contour.  Its 72mm square, with 17mm radiused corners.  With a less than rigid machine, I can only take side cuts of 0.2-0.3mm at a time. Preparing the stock only 1mm oversized helps, but using a 2D contour, it tries to cut the corners off in one go, as you can see in the first image. Obviously I can do multiple roughing passes to sneak my way to the line and nibble off the corners, but I'd need about 45 passes just to cut out one of these (second image). 

Is there a better/faster way to attack the corners?

Regards

Neal

[seth.madore · Accepted solution]

Turn on Stock Contours, set your passes to a large number, such as 45, and it will trim away all the "air" passes

[Joshua.Aigen]

@nealkriegler you could try adding a ramp to the roughing 2d contour, then the tool would ramp down as it cut allowing for a larger step but still only remove a small amount as the tool spirals down. As well if the force is more down then the machine could go a bit faster? not sure how rigid is not rigid.

[nealkriegler]

Thank you Seth. Its a lot faster and its attacking the corners first now, which is good. The only thing is the way it takes the corners off is it first nibbles side to side (climb only, lead in and lead out enabled, keep tool down), but after a few passes, it starts going over the corner to start the next pass. Any Idea why? Pics attached of first few passes in blue and then the raise and move passes in yellow.  

[seth.madore]

Hmm, could you share your file so I can see all the settings you have selected?

 

[nealkriegler]

Here we go 😊 Thanks

[seth.madore]

It creates these passes by offsetting and then trimming the chain as needed. To overcome this issue of "clipping" the stock, increase your lead-in/out values to 2mm, this will allow it to scoot past without touching stock on it's linking move back to the start

[seth.madore]

Furthermore, if you WANT it to lift up between each cut, turn off the "Keep Tool Down" button

[nealkriegler]

Ah excellent, thank you Seth. That worked great!

Thanks for taking a look.

Cheers

Neal