I've been using SprutCAm 7 since buying my Tormach mill several years ago. It took me about three years to figure it out enough to be able to turn out some decent parts but, there is still a whole lot more I don't know how to do in SprutCAM than there is that I do know how to do.
One of the things I haven't been able to figure out is how to leave material on vertical surfaces so that I can run a clean up path to give me a better surface finish. Don't get me wrong; the surface finish I'm getting now on most of my parts are acceptable but, I think that if I could figure out how to leave a couple of thousands of material after my roughing passes, that would allow my finishing passes to leave me with less post production clean up work.
The problem here too is that as I scroll through the various SprutCAM setup pages, I'm not sure what fields to enter my dimensions in so that extra material gets left on the roughed out parts.
Picture a 1"X6"x1/2" thick piece of 1018 steel with three evenly spaced 1/2" diameter divots milled .28" deep. What I'm wanting to do is rough out the three divots with a 3/8" end mill so that there's a couple of thousands of material left to their diameter so that I can then do a finish pass with a finer end mill to bring the divots to their final diameter.
This is just an attempt to paint a picture for your mind's eye. I hope it makes sense. The actual parts I'm milling are a little more complex in shape.
Can one of you guys clue me in?
MetalShavings