Strategy for milling cavity in offset direction

[ingenieriacabra]

Hi,

I'm trying to mill the pocket shown 

But all milling strategies seem to just mill part of the cavity. I want the tool to go in hopefully at a 45 degree angle; stepdown parallel to the faces of the cavity and do a contour operation.

A link to my file is https://a360.co/2Zqyana

I was wondering if any one had any ideas on how to perform this operation.

All help is appreciated.

[john.h]

A quick look at your file shows you're trying to machine this from the main axis of the part.

Does your mill have a 4th axis? If not, are you able to make a new set of soft jaws that can orient the part normal to the pocket you're trying to machine?

The problem you're running into is the overhang when trying to machine from the main Z axis of the part. You need to move the part in relation to the Z axis in order to get to the whole pocket.

Thanks,

John

[ingenieriacabra]

Thanks for the reply it was really helpful. I didn't know you could orient the tool axis in this way. I always thought it always needed to be perpendicular to the setup axis. Now I have a different issue. The toolpath refuses to cut the center of the cavity completely. It always ignores this center tab. BTW I have a 3+2 machine; a pocket nc V2.

[john.h]

When I get into the shop today I’ll take a look. 

How do you like that machine? I’ve thought about getting one for small doodads, they seem neat and less of a hassle than firing up a full size machine. 

[john.h]

So it seems your part is beyond my Fusion abilities. I did clean up your port though so you'll have better luck with machining it, the geometry you had before was pretty rough.

Good luck with this, I think you'll be able to get it with some sketches to constrain everything.

Thanks,

John

[ingenieriacabra]

Finally got it working.

After your suggestion I simplified the geometry in Solidworks and imported it again. This time I only added the cavity that would need to be machined in this operation.

Unfortunately it would still not machine part of the cavity.

So I decided to change the operation and started trying with everything and Pocket Adaptive seems to work very well.

On regards to the pocket NC V2-50 I can't tell you for certain yet; still learning CAM and machining only wax at the moment. I think it would be helpful in smaller parts with softer materials (aluminum, some soft steels, brass, etc). I have achieved some good finish and very complex parts. Will update when I have machined some more.

Thanks again for the help.

[john.h · Accepted solution]

Pocket adaptive is what I got closest with when I was playing with it. The issue with this is that it’s still a rough approximation of the pocket. 

If Fusion let us wrap a toolpath around an axis with tool tilt, that pocket would be simple. Tilt the tool parallel to the pocket and run a 2d profile on the bottom of the pocket rotating the part around the Z axis to hit all sides. Unfortunately that operation doesn’t seem to exist currently. It’s almost there with the Rotary operation that’s still in Beta, but so far they haven’t added Tilt to the equation. 

I hope i was able to help in some way. 

Thank you,

John.