[Darth Yoda]

Hi guys. I need a little help. I've got BOBCAM25 and am new at it. I'm trying to cut a piece of 2x4x70 A36 with a slot 1 X 1.98 deep on a (1998??)Haas VF3. BOBCAD shows a speed of about F4.4 but that would take about 11 hours of cutting. It's a straight 60 inch cut. The end result will be a 4 inch tall, 2 inch wide "U" shape.
I have seen videos of tricodial milling on Youtube that rips thru metal at amazing rates. Does BOBCAM have the capability to produce that code?
If I could cut the A36 at 100ipm with a depth of .400 or so it would severely reduce the time needed. Can anyone explain how too set up the Tricodial code for the part?
Thanks in advance for you time and help.

[aldepoalo]

You do have a high speed option in V25. You would need to be running the current build of V25....

Pocket pattern, Advance pocket then you would want to check adaptive roughing.

This would be your high speed pocket option.

[Darth Yoda]

Thanks for the quick answer. Will Try it in the morning!

[Darth Yoda]

Looked under both 2d AND 3D mill and do not see the options described. It is V25 build 629.
Please give a bit better detail to the steps involved.

[BurrMan]

You would need to be running the current build of V25.....

The current build is 769.

Note: Moving to this build will require some attention to the new system operation.

[Darth Yoda]

Thanks for the quick reply Burrman. I'll give the update a look in the morning.
What system problems do you refer to?

[BurrMan]

Thanks for the quick reply Burrman. I'll give the update a look in the morning.
What system problems do you refer to?

Not "problems"....

The new update "I" would categorize more as an "Upgrade" then an update. Several things have been added which require things to be setup correctly.

Although it has been stated that it can be setup to be "point and shoot", for me, I took the time to understand and set things up for what I planned on doing with it, and didnt have much trouble...

I wanted to utilize the newer 4th axis stuff and also plan on pushing some of the other features.

[Darth Yoda]

Got the update installed but haven't had time to play with it yet. I'll keep you guys informed.
Thanks again for your help.

[gorillazp108]

Hi I have been using bobcad v25-25 for about a year now and have been using the advanced roughing features in bobcad, what exactly are you trying to do? ill be happy to help if I can,

[Darth Yoda]

Here is a small representation of a part I'm doing. The actual part is about 70" long with a 1" slot down the length. It will take about 11 hours for each part without high speed. With high speed it will probably take an hour each. Thanks for your response gorilla.

[gorillazp108]

the slot looks to be 2in deep 1in wide im sure you could adaptive rough the slot under the right conditions, have you tried setting anything up yet? set your stock and machine zero? how did you intend to machine it? what kind of cutter? dry? coolant? air blast? once you have your machine and stock set up right click milling stock in your data cam tree manager>mill 3 axis>advanced rough>then select your geometry and boundary. (you can do it through pocket as well) when u are in the patterns menu of your parameters click zig zag and adaptive roughing,

[gorillazp108]

it should look something like this

[dwood]

Darth Yoda
did a little testing on 70 inch 2d pocket, not knowing what end mill you will be using, i input a .500 5 flute at .495 depth of cut, at 10% stepover, 7500rpm, 981 sfm, .002 per tooth feed, pattern advanced pocket,adaptive rgh, uncheck oneway, this will cut both directions, it backplots in preditor and simulation at about 30 minutes per pass, so about 2 hours plus, all this will depend on how good your tooling is and what e mill you choose, and how tight your machine is

there may be faster hsp but, none any nicer to the machine

gorillia has shown you what the toolpath looks like

[Darth Yoda]

Hope everyone had a good holiday. But now back to work...........sigh.
I will be setting the test part up off the left edge and rigid vise jaw in back. The cutter I'll probably use is a high speed steel .812 four flute because it's the one I have. I do realize I'll have to adjust to my set up as needed.

Gorilla, did you use a spiral leadin?

But another question. What is the difference between geometry and boundary? Sorry for being such a pain guys but a newbie has to learn. Thanks again for all your help.

[gorillazp108]

no it was just a plunge, I usually prefer to drill out the plunge locations but u can spiral too if u want, geometry is going to be the surface/object/solid you are machining and your boundary is going to keep your toolpath contained within. are you programming off of a solid model or drawing your own geometries?.. if you are only cutting a slot 1" wide I would go with something smaller than .812, .500 carbide 5-6 flute carbide with a 1"loc should work ok, I just bought a few from mscdirect for 60-70 each I think.

[Darth Yoda]

I prefer the drill/plunge method but youtube always shows a spiral lead-in.

I plan on using the solid model to program off of. So in this case the slot would be both geometry and boundry will be the same?
The .812 end mill was just just a recommedation (?). It is new a and sharp. I will get a .500 carbide tho.
Again thanks, I am learning alot (slowly!!).

[Darth Yoda]

Gorilla, you state 1" loc? Is that length of cut?
Second - should I run this with air only or flood coolant? I have a 1997 HAAS vf3 and don't think it has an air only option.

[Darth Yoda]

Played around on BOBCAM today. Got my high speed code up but can't do a simulation due to a "collision" error. Invalid collision pair "tool, stock"

Everytime I get one step further something throws me back.

[dwood]

Darth Yoda

in the simulation window, find the 2 buttons simulation mode, 1 is toolpath mode, 1 is material mode, click the material mode and close the sim window
then open sim. again, this should simulate now, mine does this but always works in material mode, i think this might computer related, on where it puts things????

[Darth Yoda]

Thanks for the reply dwood. I had already called BoBCAD and walked me thru it. It happens if you choose toolpath mode over material mode. It is a known issue and they are working on a fix.