----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 10:43
AM
Subject: roughing surfaces
I have some parts that I just can't figure out
the easiest/ fastest / best method for roughing. The part is an iges
surfaces file, with what looks like a Jacobs taper at an angle sticking up on
the top. I want to mill around the jacobs taper to get it somewhat to
size and shape prior to putting it in a fixture to finish turn the
angle. This will prevent a serious interupted cut condition in the
lathe, as well as maintain the balance a bit better. I have fooled
around with the various surfacing tools, with various cuts, but it doesn't
seem to perform real well. What I would like, is almost like cavity
roughing in a planar mode, that will avoid the island / peg / jacobs taper
thing, but to do it as a facing, not cavity method. Like creating an EDM
electrode.
What I usually end up doing,
is just laying down geometry around the part at various levels, and doing
showcut to ensure that I haven't touched the actual part. This is time
consuming and tedious, however my cut time is down under 10 minutes, as
compared to over 20 for any surface roughing method that SC comes up
with. Since I do the programming myself, it is "free" but the machine
time needs to be minimalized. This is a repeat job so machine time is
the big issue, and programming like this seems to be a standard issue that
either smartcam or myself cannot seem to automate very well. Any
suggestions?
Jon Baker
PS, I have hacked away and created a couple other
surfaces so now you can see the basic idea I am trying to accomplish without
my releasing customer drawings / engineering. I created two finish cuts
with the one endmill, and that is what I want to finish on this step.
Then the top part, I just want roughed in within .100 to .050 to keep it
fairly even so that when I chuck up on the lower shaped surface in a form
collet, it won't be so interupted on the lathe. The material shape at
this stage is level 2, so enter that in showcut and you should be good to
go. Thanks again for your input folks.
Jon
