Speeding Things Up

[TReischl]

Last week I was cutting a hatch pattern. I thought the time was pretty darn slow, granted, I do not have the fastest machine in the universe. The hatch pattern required that I make three passes to reach final depth. None of the lines were connected, they were standalones. So, the tool would go to depth, make a pass, retract, rapid back to the start point, plunge to the second depth, cut, retract, rapid back, plunge, cut, etc. . . . way slow.

Here is what I did, and I hope you can follow this.

1. I decided to eliminate the return rapid traverses by cutting the entire pattern to a depth each pass.
2. The start points were set so that the return rapids were eliminated as shown below.

Notice that the start points are alternated. i did this for the both the right and left leaning lines.
3. I then grouped the left leaning lines.
4. The right leaning lines were then grouped.
5. Both groups were then combined into one group to make it easy to select them at one time
6. I then created three cut sequences to reach the final depth of cut.

The result was that I saved about 18 minutes of machine time per part on this job. It adds up, especially if you do not have a really fast machine.

This only took a few minutes to do in the software and saved a LOT of time on the machine.

[Woodbutcher-59]

Hi,

This is a great tip...thanks for posting it !!

I too have noticed that a bit of tweaking can go a long way
when it comes to setting up a toolpath.

This just adds a little more knowledge to the toolbox, now if I could
only remember it all when needed....

Jeff