2 sided machining

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Jan.vanderlinden
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2 sided machining

Post by Jan.vanderlinden »

I'm trying to do a two sided profile cut.
Cutting just past half the thickness on both sides.
How do I program the bottom side when it doesn't allow me to select the vectors?

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Adrian
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Re: 2 sided machining

Post by Adrian »

You have to have vectors on both sides as far as I'm aware. Copy the top one to the bottom in the same place.
Last edited by Adrian on Wed Apr 10, 2019 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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jfederer
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Re: 2 sided machining

Post by jfederer »

You copy them to the other side with the right-click pop-up menu, switch sides, select, and generate tool path as usual.
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Jan.vanderlinden
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Re: 2 sided machining

Post by Jan.vanderlinden »

I just tried it and it works.
Thank you very much.

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rscrawford
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Re: 2 sided machining

Post by rscrawford »

You might want to do the profile cut on one side, full thickness, and do all the 'interior' cuts two sided. No matter how exact your machine and indexing is, there will be a slight mismatch that will need to be sanded out between the two cuts. Cutting all the way through on the second side will give a nice smooth finish on the profile.
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garylmast
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Re: 2 sided machining

Post by garylmast »

If you are selecting the vectors for machining, you will need to do a profile cut and add tabs and there is no need to add tabs in the modeling level. If you added tabs in the component list, instead of choosing vectors, go to Selected Level and choose whatever level your model is on. I like to select the same size as my mill (rather than half diameter) as a boundary offset so it goes pass center to insure the full cutout. Of course the zero plane (limit plane) needs to be a negative number).
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