Tool for Finish 3D No Edit?

[wmgeorge]

I am on V9.5 w/Mach3 trying to do a revision to my Bear in a Log project. First one over a month ago went fine, .250 Ball nose for Rough and .125 Ball nose for Fine. The .250 holds the Pass depth of cut just fine.

New project in 9.5 now the .125 when I go to edit it does not show the DOC and but in the pull down Tool Database left top menu it shows when I have it set at .01, now in edit it does not show. It also does not show the number of passes its going to do? When the Finish file starts to run it goes to the final finish depth ASAP and screws up the cut, surprise. I think my old file was prepared in 9.0 so is my Data Base for Tools screwed up or is it something I am doing wrong from the file I ran a month ago?

[Adrian]

The finish toolpath is always a single pass regardless of depth so if you edit the tool in the toolpath rather than via the tool database (from the toolpaths menu) there will be no pass depth.

[wmgeorge]

Correction my Rough is suppose to leave .04 to machine off with the Finish. I think it did so, but because its in a dish its hard to tell but its close. . When I go to the Tool Data Base and limit the Pass Depth to .01 inch and the created gcode file does not show that happening, more like Z .164 first pass, something is going on.

[martin54]

So if my Rough is leaving .300 of wood the little .125 is going to take it off in one path? It went and tried to do that plunging to that depth after leaving zero.

Yes it will, if the remaining 0.300 is to much for the finishing bit then you can just take more to start with sing the roughing bit, you decide what material allowance to leave when you calculate the roughing toolpath
There haven't been any changes between V9 & 9.5 in this area that I am aware of so if you have previously cut this file you must have done it exactly the same way unless you are toolpathing it again

[wmgeorge]

So if my Rough is leaving .300 of wood the little .125 is going to take it off in one path? It went and tried to do that plunging to that depth after leaving zero.

Yes it will, if the remaining 0.300 is to much for the finishing bit then you can just take more to start with sing the roughing bit, you decide what material allowance to leave when you calculate the roughing toolpath
There haven't been any changes between V9 & 9.5 in this area that I am aware of so if you have previously cut this file you must have done it exactly the same way unless you are toolpathing it again

Nope I posted wrong info the Rough was suppose to leave .04 as I posted above and the software selected that. This is a new file using a Dish. The Finish Pass Depth I limited to .01 so why is the gcode file created not honoring that limit? Please see above. Thank You.

PS the Preview file looks fine, no gouge in the project

[Rcnewcomb]

The Finish Pass Depth I limited to .01

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you limited the finish pass depth to .01

Can you provide a screen shot where are you seeing/doing that?

[wmgeorge]

The Finish Pass Depth I limited to .01

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you limited the finish pass depth to .01

Can you provide a screen shot where are you seeing/doing that?

In the Tool Data Base under settings you can limit the Pass Depth of cut and I did so and set at .01 which means the tool should only take that much off per pass. That's the way it works on all the tools. This is a 3D file and you use a Rough and Finish tool path.

[wmgeorge]

Screen shots... and I just LOVE Windows 10 took a 3 minute job and made it 10 minutes!

Tool Data Base

Tool Edit

[Rcnewcomb]

The finishing toolpath NEVER uses the pass depth. It always done in a single pass at full depth.

[wmgeorge]

The finishing toolpath NEVER uses the pass depth. It always done in a single pass at full depth.

I have done the Design and Make 3D files before and never had this problem. Gee whiz I made the jumping Bass years ago for my BIL and never had this problem. So when the Roughing path generated by the software leaves to much it all has to come of in one pass? The amount was .04 (software set) but the tool was taking way to much off with the .125 ball nose. You can not limit the Pass Depth, so my project made from walnut is headed for the firewood pile.

[Rcnewcomb]

This is not a change with 9.5. All the previous version behaved the same way.

[wmgeorge]

Thanks for all the help. I must of been really lucky on those other 3D (2.5 D) projects I did. I wish I had the written documentation for VCP9.5.

[martin54]

If your finish tool is not going to be able to cope with the amount of wood left & the project is still on the machine or you have some way to put it back on & register it then you could run another roughing pass but leave a smaller allowance for the finish tool to remove. It will cut air while it cuts but if your machine control allows you to scroll through the gcode & start at any point you could avoid a lot of that

[wmgeorge]

If your finish tool is not going to be able to cope with the amount of wood left & the project is still on the machine or you have some way to put it back on & register it then you could run another roughing pass but leave a smaller allowance for the finish tool to remove. It will cut air while it cuts but if your machine control allows you to scroll through the gcode & start at any point you could avoid a lot of that

Well I have the project locked down and zero marked, my idea is to use the Roughing pass as my only pass using the .125 Ball nose bit, and leaving No Material for final Finishing pass and I hope I can salvage the job. Its already Roughed out and I had assumed the .04 left was because the software calculated it from the tool I was using.

I just spent an hour reading through the doc's and not once did it say I was only allowed one Finishing pass, but oh well.


BTW did I ever post my picture of our wonderful 15 month old Border Collie? I would really like to do a carving of either her or a Border Collie look alike.

[martin54]

No the software doesn't calculate the allowance, not completely sure but I have always assumed it was like a lot of the other settings where it remembered the last figure used. You can set it to any value you like, you can still run another rough & finish pass, without seeing its difficult to say for sure but another option might be to move the model down a little in the material block & then calculate your rough & finish toolpaths again

My Border Collie is a little bit older than yours, Meg will be 10 this year lol