Climb cutting?

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rmj
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Climb cutting?

Post by rmj »

Hi, I'm wanting to machine some solid wood, and in VCarve it cuts much nicer in climb - conventional is pretty rowdy, and leaves an unacceptable edge. How can I climb cut with Cut3d? I tried to import the toolpath into VCarve to change it, but the options are locked.

Thanks in advance,
rmj

tmerrill
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by tmerrill »

in the roughing toolpath you really don't care because all the edges left will either be off the model or removed by the finish pass.

The finish pass is a raster pass so there is no way to specify climb or conventional. Being raster, it alternates climb and conventional with the direction of the raster passes.

The cutout toolpath does offer a choice.

Tim

rmj
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by rmj »

Conventional cutting destroyed a couple of workpieces in the roughing pass actually. I ended up manually editing the code, lots of work but then no problems. This would be a good feature to add to Cut3D. Some of the other basic 3D CAM packages have this selectable.

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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by tmerrill »

I've never had issues so it is hard to relate to what you are seeing without pictures or a sample file. Aspire doesn't even offer a climb/conventional option with the 3D roughing pass and there hasn't been any posts about that either.

Let us help you and give us more to go on. What type of wood, feeds and speeds, pass depth, stepover, etc. If these are not set correctly they can cause issues which is not the fault of the program.

Tim

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Leo
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by Leo »

I have near 40 years in the machining industry and play with CNC wood in the spare time.

On my small machine at home, I have cut many many 3D things with no issue at all.

I have cut a variety of hardwoods, corian, aluminum, brass.

The problem you are having is not climb vs conventional cutting.
Imagine the Possibilities of a Creative mind, combined with the functionality of CNC

rmj
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by rmj »

The material is vertically laminiated bamboo (not ply, which machines ok conventionally). Climb cutting - perfect finish. Conventional cutting just tears off long strips of the material, splitting it along the length of the grain, so thin areas of the workpiece are destroyed. With no other parameters changed. Chiploads all calculated nicely etc etc. It is absolutely a climb vs conventional problem - It's pretty well known that vertical laminated bamboo needs to be routed climb (it's used a lot in boardsports as core material, you can read about it on forums like skibuilders). I'd demonstrate but at a couple $100 a sheet I'm not really keen to waste any more cash on this! It's a simple bit of code to calculate in excel, or to manually find and replace lines in the code, easier to do that than wait for a feature I guess.

Thanks for the help anyway fellas. FWIW Vcarve is great for all other parts of the process I'm using.

gregrae
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by gregrae »

I have the same issue with Clear Pocket, Raster alternating between climb and conventional. I am machining softwood with the grain, so Raster is great in the climb direction then tears out on the way back.
It would be great to be able to specify Climb Only for Raster. Thanks

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Adrian
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by Adrian »

It would take twice as long to cut that way so I doubt many people would want it. I've never had that issue when cutting all sorts of different materials with a raster pocket cut. Are you sure your tooling is correct and the feed etc are correct?

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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by gregrae »

Thanks Adrian. My issue is tear-out / poor bottom finish for pockets in softwood. From chatting with mtylerfl I will try reducing stepover to 20% from 30% and see how that goes.

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mtylerfl
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by mtylerfl »

Adrian wrote:...Are you sure your tooling is correct and the feed etc are correct?
Hi Greg,

Adrian asked a pretty important question.

The stepover reduction may not help if your bit is taking too big a bite (pass depth set too deep) or traveling too fast (excessive feed rate for your bit or machine or material).

Please let us know what your Feed, RPM and Pass Depth settings are when you have a chance. Or, post your file and we can take a peek.
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by Rcnewcomb »

My issue is tear-out / poor bottom finish for pockets in softwood.
A different bit may provide the best solution. An O flute from Onsrud (64/65 series) Or Centurion might be worth trying.
- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

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mtylerfl
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by mtylerfl »

We don't even know exactly what Bit he's using yet. Hopefully, an Up Cut. I use an Onsrud .25" up cut EM #52-910 quite often. Nice, clean pocket floors in soft or hardwood. Typical Pass Depth 0.125", 12k rpm, Feed 1.5 to 2 ips
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gregrae
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by gregrae »

Thanks gentlemen. I finally got back to the shop and tried a reduced stepover 20% and it did help.
My tool is 1/2" upcut, pass depth 0.25", 10k rpm, feed 1.4 ips.
I will try this O-flute and see if it helps some more:
https://www.onsrud.com/product/Item/m/i ... mId=52-704

gregrae
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Re: Climb cutting?

Post by gregrae »


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