[murphmoose]

Here is my question....I have attached a part drawing for something that I would like to make. I have been playing around with different CAM software and am in the evaluation stage before I purchase my machine and all the software. My question is... What kind of cutter would you use for this operation? I am having a slight problem because of the curvature of what i am trying to mill. From looking through available options, I was thinking a lollipop cutter?

Also, what CAM software would you recommend to be able to do this one.....I know it's the age old question. I am doing a demo of Alibre Cam right now, because I like the fact that it is integrated...but I don't think I can do this with the standard version of CAM. It doesn't seem that they support all the different cutters.

Opinions? Thanks in advance.
Steve

[flyinchips]

Looks like something I would drill. I would use some sacrificial material to orient the part at the correct angle and drill the hole into this piece and one of the sacrificial pieces.

[dbrija]

Looks like something I would drill. I would use some sacrificial material to orient the part at the correct angle and drill the hole into this piece and one of the sacrificial pieces.

Looked again. It is just a cylinder after all.... Drill it.

[justgary]

Steve -

Unless you can get it on a 4th axis and rock it back and forth using a regular ball end mill, it looks like the "lollipop" cutter is your only choice. The better choice would be to redesign the part to not have the undercut walls. Square undercuts are bad enough, but rounded ones stink!

Regards,

- Just Gary

[300sniper]

Looks like something I would drill. I would use some sacrificial material to orient the part at the correct angle and drill the hole into this piece and one of the sacrificial pieces.

that's the first thought that came to my mind.

[justgary]

Sorry, when I looked at the drawing it looked like a football-shaped cut. When I went back and clicked on the PDF to enable 3D (wow!), It is clearly just a cylinder cut at an angle.

I agree with the others, just tilt it and drill it against a backing plate of similar hardness.

This exercise made me realize that my (older) version of SprutCAM does not consider true spherical end mills, only ball end mills. That means I would have to work around that limitation if I ever wanted to cut a sunken football shape without the 4th axis. Sorry for the thread hijack, but does SprutCAM 7 allow you to define a true spherical end mill?

Regards,

- Just Gary

[wvines]

...does SprutCAM 7 allow you to define a true spherical end mill?

It does allow spherical mills for some operations, such as 2d contouring.



You can also define form tools with any shape using their 2d geometry tool. I can't do this myself because their 2d geometry tool hurts my brain.

[Don Clement]

I can't do this myself because their 2d geometry tool hurts my brain.

OMG I am not the only one that thinks that of SprutCAM's 2d tools. I try to do everything in Solidworks before exporting to SprutCAM.

Don

[justgary]

Thanks. I guess a hurting brain is better than not having the ability to define the cutter at all.

Regards,

- Just Gary

[Don Clement]

Yeah, SprutCAM can do it but sometimes it's a steep learning curve. Need more SprutCAM videos. Thanks Eric. The Rosetta Stone videos that exist are really a great help in decoding SprutCAM lexicon from the Cyrillic native.

Don

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlKiRPSNGA"]YouTube - D. P. Gumby - My Brain Hurts![/nomedia]

[300sniper]

it should also be a simple subroutine to write if you insisted on milling it with a "lollipop" cutter.