[MagooT]

Hi guys!

I have recently started planning a 4:th axis for my mill. I am thinking about simply adding a small lathe chuck to my table, so that the workpiece is parallel with the X axis.

However my question is, how do i draw 4 axis toolpaths and geometry in Mastercam? I have tried different things but i don't understand how it is supposed to work and I can't find any "tutorials" or demos on the internet either.

Does anyone have some simple example files that would get me started on learning this? For example a round stock piece in the chuck, drill a hole in it, rotate a couple of degrees, drill another hole and so on? I have tried drawing cylindrical solids and stuff like that but i don't know which toolpaths to use or anything.

Thanks a lot for any help.
Best regards
MagooT

[cadcam]

There are not really any free stuff on 4th but there are books on it.
but so fare what you are talking is simple Rotary substitution.

[MagooT]

Ok thanks for the reply.
What book would you recommend?

best regards
MagooT

[cadcam]

This one here.
http://www.volumesdirect.com/detail.aspx?ID=2944

[MagooT]

Thanks. I shall see if i can get my hands on it somewhere around here.

Meanwhile, i found som examples in the mastercam-folder, so i tried it out.
But i can't get it to look like in the tutorial PDF, the toolpath around the cylinder gets split up into small movements, and the g-code gets huge. Why does this happen?

Here is the mcx-file attached.

[cnc-king]

take a look at the sample files on MC's website. i picked up a lot from their samples