[rossrods]

Hey folks a little machininng question. I have a cavity with straight sidewalls thats perpendicular to the bottom. Its leaving alot of tooling marks or guages in the straight side walls. Is there a way to clean this up. Im using mastercam and it has a option to leave stock on drive and also a option to leave stock on check. Should you leave any stock on straight sidewalls as mention above. It only happens when I have cavities with these straight side walls, if the cavities have arcs or curved bottoms its no problem. Im thinking the issue is more cam related than milling issues. The model has no surface imperfections so Im for sure its not the 3d model. Thanks Rick

[TXFred]

Leaving stock on drive is useful if you're going to go back and finish with a different tool. For instance, if you rough with a 1/2" ball mill, but finish with a 1/8", you want to leave enough stock remaining that the final surface has only been cut by the 1/8" mill.

Normal surfacing toolpaths do tend to get messy when the surface is vertical or close to vertical.

Since the problem you're having is with vertical walls, maybe you should use a Pocket toolpath for that section of the part instead of a surfacing toolpath. It will give better results.

Another option is the Surface Parallel Steep toolpath. I haven't used it, but it's supposed to be optimized for steep surfaces.

By the way, there's a MasterCAM forum here.
Mastercam - CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!

You'll get more answers from that forum. Not many Tormach owners can afford to pay MasterCAM's fees. Me included.

Frederic

[rossrods]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm running x3 mill level 2 and it doesn't have full features. I do have pocket. Never tried pocket except on flat surfaces. The bottom of this cavity has curvature within it. I will try and see what the result is. I was thinking it might be tool deflection but not sure. Ya I posted the same question in mastercam also. I was not sure if it was my programming or my machining abilities, sounds like both LOL. first I need to learn how to spell gouges. Not gauges LOL, long day.