Thoughts on Deskproto/Mini Review

[Ijhammo]

Thanks for a nice review - very helpful. Did you get round to using the 4th axis?Also, have you ever looked at MeshCAM?

[Washout]

Hi Ijhammo
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No problems, hopefully it helped.
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I haven't yet used the 4th axis functions, mainly due to my 4th axis being a rotary table and tail stock, which I have yet to attach a stepper motor to, but I still intend to do this when I can get the time.
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I've not looked at MeshCAM, but will do, as apart from maybe SolidCAM/iMachining there seem to be quirks and limitations to many CAM packages. It probably worth me adding a few more of these from Deskproto:


Ramping can be missed if there is not room on the 1st operation to fit the slope in (broken a few single flute tips due to this).

Having to calculate every tool path again when you load a file up rather than the software actually saving it internally is a bit of a faff (time consuming) especially when doing small DoC, step-over, high-res for say finishing passes.

Tool does not return to x/y zero - just raises to safe height.

On 3D finishing passes (especially using ball nose for some reason) there seems to be a lot of unnecessary plunges on outside curves etc. - that maybe something I have done in the parameters however.
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Cheers
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Chris

[Ijhammo]

Duplicate post removed

[Ijhammo]

Hi Chris,

your mini review was a real find as I have been struggling with the CAM piece.

i only got in to machining at the beginning of the year when I bought a sherline lathe and mill to support my model building hobby. I looked at some of the parts in the model and thought "I can make these better". I made a few bits by hand and quickly came to the conclusion that to get the finish I really wanted I would need to go CNC.

A few weeks ago I bought the CNC kit for my sherline mill, including the 4th axis rotary table. So far I have got it hooked up to Mach3 and can control the stepper motors nicely. For CAD I am using ViaCAD Pro9 as I had an early version and could upgrade cheaply :-)

the CAM piece has been trickier as it seems to be the limiting factor in the complexity of the pieces you can make. The hobby level pricing tends to lead to restricted features compared to something like SolidCAM which is $15k for multi axis!! (Ie very much not hobby!)

my other challenge is feed and speeds for the very small parts I need to make - I will be using tiny cutters for the fine details (1mm and smaller) and I can't get any good data on the rates to use.

thanks again for the tips

ian

[Ijhammo]

Hi Chris,

Quick question if you have time to answer. I spent some some time this afternoon reading through the reference and tutorial manuals as well as watching some tutorial videos on YouTube.

one thing I can't figure out is if it is possible to manually set a round part segment (material stock). It seems DP defaults to this for rotational, but everywhere else it looks like its square or rectangular. Most of my stock is round as, for the sizes I need, it's much easier to find.

Am I missing something obvious?

cheers

ian

[Washout]

Hi Ian,
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To be honest I don't know if it is possible. Deskproto do have a forum, so might be worth asking there.
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Chris