Can I ramp along a surface in roughing pass?

[Anonymous]

Hello! I'm new to Fusion360, but have hobbyist experience with CNC and I'm a pro at other 3d animation software.

I will ask my question first and then give context after that. Hope someone can help.

QUESTION: Is it possible to ramp along a surface to essentially get a finishing pass in the first operation?

BACKGROUND:

I'm needing to carve a 1.3cm geometric design into each side of a 3cm cube (A). I want to make several of these so I want the process to be as optimized as possible. I don't want to switch out tools for multiple passes for ever single side.

A

I've been successful in doing this with flat gcode generated from Inventable's Easel program (B). The blue wax and wood pieces above were created that way.

B

The issue is with the overlap of the corners, it cuts into the design on the adjoining side (C)(Click to enlarge the image).

So, I've decided that if I could get the gcode to ramp into (or out of) the material to make a bevel at the edge, I would eliminate the flat overcuts. I've created an .stl model that does just this (D) in a 3d animation program. My designs (2d and 3d) are larger than my stock so it passes fully outside of the material.

D

I knew I was going to have to up my software game to do this, so I started to jump into F360. This is as close as I've gotten in trying to do this with one tool/pass (E). It's a lot of stair-stepping and jumps back and forth quite a bit. 

SETUP: My setup is a Gen 1 ShapeOko (don't laugh) with upgrades (spindle & new GRBL board) with a 1/16" flat 2 flute end mill. Since it's not a very sturdy machine I keep my speeds quite low. I also 3d printed a quick-change jig for the cube so I can just slide it in and out after each side is done.

CONCLUSION: So here's my thought. The 2d carving from Easel takes about 6 min. with two depth passes of straight cuts (with my settings). Can I get Fusion 360 to create the same passes and just ramp out to create the slopes of the bevel? Seems simple in my head. Seems like it would make a smooth finish with only one process and one tool. Again, it's not a lot of carving, it's not very deep, have a lot of these to do, so I'd prefer to do one pass with no tool changeout.

Any tips, tricks, suggestions, and help would be greatly appreciated!

-Cody

[daniel_lyall]

That can be done depending on the toolpath can you post the model To attach a file 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.

You can do the roughing and finish with the same tool.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much @daniel_lyall . Here is the file. Let me know if there are any issues getting it.

[daniel_lyall]

You can do a roughing and finishing toolpath with the same tool, your part would be easier to work with if it was a solid, not a mesh.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again. I was sort of wondering if building in F360 would give me better results over importing a polygonal model. I will dive into more tutorials and see if I can get this modeled as a surface. I will also take the approach of two passes.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I managed to rebuild my model natively in Fusion 360 (I'm sure quite inefficiently). I'm still really stumped on how to get proper 3d milling paths out of this. I've tried multiple combinations of roughing passes and finishing passes, but with no better luck than with my polygonal .stl file. Any additional pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[daniel_lyall]

The Shape of the part you want to cut out really needs a finishing op with a smaller tool.

This is the best I can get what the arrows are pointing to is what is left behind because the tool can not fit.

A small tool as you can see does a lot better.

Example attached.

If you had a 5 axis machine it would be better.

[Anonymous]

Thank you again @daniel_lyall . I do have a smaller bit (1/32"). The boundaries of this model are intended to go slightly outside of physical stock dimensions for the purpose of miniscule slop in my precut blanks and holding jig. With 6 sides per cube and producing many of these, I was hoping to find a sweet spot between speed, finish, and no tool changes if possible. That is the obvious Holy Grail of anyone though. I will continue to tweak and test.

[daniel_lyall]

Yes just play with the settings and toolpath's you only need to do it a half dozen times on different models to start to learn what does what and after the 100 part it gets easy.