Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

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monlover
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Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by monlover »

Hi, is it normal the roughing toolpath takes a way longer than the finishing path?
at his example the roughing toolpath takes 8 hrs and if i ran the finishing path from scratch it takes 3 hrs and 51 min

roughing using 1/4 ball nose at 12000 and 100 Ipm
and finishing using 1/4 ball nose at 12000 and 100 ipm also.
plunge at 35ipm
thank you for your help in advance.
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roighing
roighing
finishing
finishing

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Xxray
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Xxray »

No, its not normal - Check your stepover on roughing, jack it up to 40% or so, also would be better off using an endmill for roughing
Doug

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Adrian
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Adrian »

Other thing to check is the pass depth. The roughing toolpath is done in multiple passes if the needed cut depth is more than the pass depth of the tool. The finishing pass is always done in one pass. If you've got a very small pass depth on the roughing tool it could be taking lots of passes. I expect, as Xxray suspects, that the stepover is the biggest issue.

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dealguy11
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by dealguy11 »

Another thing to think about. Are you cutting this on your Omnitech or on your other machine? What material are you cutting?

If this is on the Omnitech you might consider increasing the feed rate on your tools. A 1/4" ballnose can go pretty fast on carving. Try setting it to at least 200 ipm. It probably won't go any faster than that because of the amount of z movement but it's worth a try. For roughing, it should be able to go much faster than 100 ipm, and as others have suggested you might want to use an end mill rather than the ball nose.
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Mikehell »

I use a normal flat 1/4" bit for roughing and not a ballnose and it works fine. I set it to take shallower passes and less stepover and it seems to work ok. It leaves just enough meat on the bone for a small ballnose to take off. I sometimes run the finish pass pretty fast. Set the plunge rate these same as the feed rate.

monlover
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by monlover »

Flower_Box_3_TP.png
Hello every one,
thank you for your great help,
after some toolpath modification, and did not have a chance to run the actual file here is some results:
as you can see the time decreased a lot, the finish toolpath now is 3:39

below is my tool setup:
using Zenbot CNC 4X4 with Hitachi Metabo router 11 Amp
roughing using 1/4 end mill down cut at 100 FR and 100 Plunge rate
Finish toolpath using 1/8 Ball Nose at 100 FR and 100 Plunge rate
Profile toolpath using 1/8 End mill down cut at 50 FR and 20 Plunge rate

is 5 hours and 13 minutes is reasonable time for 12X12 inch poplar material.
this is my fires carving project and do not know time needed for such projects.
Thank you for your help.
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Final.png

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Xxray
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Xxray »

mon, we would get more useful into seeing the box that pops up when you click tool edit rather than the summary. Others can elaborate on this more than me, but the time estimation is just a wild guess until its calibrated to your particular machine so it may or may not reflect what would actually happen time wise if you ran the file.
I can say that 5 hours for a detailed 12x12 3d carving is not excessive, if there are no concerns with the preview you should try it.
Doug

monlover
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by monlover »

xxry, at the Right section, at the toolpath can not find any tool edit button, I am guessing you are asking for the details for the attached tool path details?
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edit_tp.png

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scottp55
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by scottp55 »

AT the very top of that pic Mon...in Tool category...that will show feeds and stepover.
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Rcnewcomb »

is 5 hours and 13 minutes is reasonable time for 12X12 inch poplar material.
Compare that time with how long it would take you to carve it by hand with a set of chisels.
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by rscrawford »

'Reasonable time' for 3D work totally depends on your machine.

I would never consider doing a roughing pass on something like that. I'd use a raster cut at 18000rpm and feed speed of 800XYZ. Probably 45 minutes on my machine (its the acceleration/decelleration settings that makes the biggest difference in cut times on something like this, not just your feed speeds)
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Rcnewcomb »

(its the acceleration/decelleration settings that makes the biggest difference in cut times on something like this, not just your feed speeds)
Russ,
I'd be interested in looking at you WINCNC.INI file for your setting.
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Xxray
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Xxray »

I thought about the no roughing angle, personally I think those with less experience should rough to get familiar with the entire process, then once they gain experience they can omit the step if they wish. I rarely use roughing myself except thick plexiglas and the hardest of woods with deep cuts. Now he knows thats an option, would advise .125 passes max and a good, sharp endmill when roughing.
Doug

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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by TReischl »

Maybe I think about finishing passes a little differently than some others?

Since very little material is being removed I push my machine as fast as it will go, or at least set the feedrates so it has the opportunity to do so. Acceleration is fast. A lot of folks look at a part like that and say, oh, well, it will never get over X IPM so there is no point in setting it any higher. That is a mistake. It doesn't take 3 inches of flat to get up to 250 IPM. A while back I did a spreadsheet to calc what accelerations do. The 25in/sec/sec used is actually very conservative.
Capture.JPG
The point here is that if the machine can go faster let it. Programming a low feed rate because you feel the machine will never reach that feed rate is a mistake that costs lots of time.
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Xxray
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Re: Roughing Vs Finishing toolpath

Post by Xxray »

I missed it, did someone suggest programming a low feed rate ?
Doug

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