Trochoidal CAM

[Neale]

I saw passing mention of someone using trochoidal cutting paths recently. I've had a quick look around and it doesn't look as if any of the more common (I.e. cheap enough for home use) CAM packages offer this. Have I missed something? Is it something worth doing even on relatively lightweight home machines, as opposed to full-scale heavyweight commercial milling machines?

[johnsattuk]

Estlcam ??

[JAZZCNC]

Probably me you seen mention it.? . . . I think seen CamBam can do this or flavor of it but I may be wrong has I don't use it. Possibly was on a beta version.?

Is it something worth doing even on relatively lightweight home machines, as opposed to full-scale heavyweight commercial milling machines?

Yes very much so because the cutting forces are so much lower it doesn't stress the machine or cutter so much. The material removal rate and extended tool life is awsome.
Down side has you've seen is it mostly only comes on higher end Cam packages so costs more. If your making money with the machine and time is important then it's really worth having because the cycle times can drop by 50-60% and tool life increase by 25-35%.

[johnsattuk]

Was using Estlcam for some time before your mention, like it because it's very easy to use and very well priced.

[Neale]

Probably me you seen mention it.? . . . I think seen CamBam can do this or flavor of it but I may be wrong has I don't use it. Possibly was on a beta version.?

I think it might have been you, Jazz - I'm not sure now. Google found a reference to someone who was playing with this a few years ago as a possible plug-in option for Cambam, but as far as I can see it hasn't made it to the product. I've been playing with Fusion360 recently as a 3D design tool, especially for 3D printing (it's a bit OTT for this but just a few features make it really useful) but I hadn't looked at the CAM side of it at all. Searching for "trochoidal" in the help area I find mention of a "max trochoidal radius" CAM parameter, but no explanation of what it is or how it is used. Looks like I need to do a bit of exploring there.

Haven't come across Estlcam - I'll take a closer look, thanks.

[routercnc]

Hi Neale,

When I looked into this a few months back I got all excited because CAMBAM seemed to offer this, and was prepared to buy a copy just for that. But the more I read into it the more convinced I was that it was an imitation of troichoidal type paths and ONLY for straight line cuts. It did not do proper trochoidal for arbitrary shapes such as pockets. To me this is the where the time saving could come in, so I didn't buy it.
I could be wrong but that was the conclusion / limitation I made about CAMBAM.

Thanks

[johnsattuk]

https://youtu.be/T4fn-tP1PuI