I decided to make Xmas gifts this year with my Nomad. I thought a good idea to figure out and practice a little bit of a setup that would allow me to work in factory line style. I bought a beautiful model of a soap dish that I thought would be a great opportunity to learn to CAM something a little more complex that just 2D cuts. I think I might have gotten more that I can chew. Here is the soap dish:
I’m planning to do without the flip geometry here and just use registration pins to flip it. I use Fusion 360. I am trying to generate tool paths efficiently and can’t seem to make the 3D adaptive clearing working the same way it works in the video. I have spent the better part of today tinkering with this strategy but have gotten nowhere. Anyone out there that might want to help/teach me what I’m doing wrong. Here is what I’ve got so far:
I don’t get close enough to the top holes and don’t get to the bottom ones either. I thought maybe it was the width of my cutter but in the video he uses a 1/4" flat too. Just out of curiosity I also tried a 1/8" flat and got a little bit closer but not right either. I know I must be setting something wrong. Please help. All in a good Xmas spirit.
Hey @patofoto - I am not an expert on this, but my understanding is that you need to use more than one operation type to mill an object like that. 3D Adaptive Clearing is meant as a roughing strategy, which you then follow up with other 3D operations. I’m at work at the moment (actually, I’m in Thailand for a week away from my machine and F360… Ahhhhh!), so can’t view any of the videos to double check, but I highly recommend the NYC CNC Youtube channel if you haven’t seen it already. Some or all of the following might be helpful:
I also think you’re going to want to introduce a ball nose for one or more of the finishing passes. A square tip likely won’t give you a great surface finish.
edit: Yep, he uses a ball nose in the video you linked to.
@JohnE, thank you very much for your detailed response. I am very familiar with NYC CNC. Been following him for a while now. He’s a treasure trove of information and entertaining to watch too!. I should have stated that the only problem I’m having is with the adaptive clearing pass. I can mill this with other type of passes but will take longer/be less efficient. I guess I’m trying to figure out why I can’t make it work like the video. I’m in the process of trying out other strategies. I have a solution to mill it now but it’s taking about 1 1/5 hrs per side. This is why I’m trying to figure out more efficient strategies.
@r3dey3 Yes. I’ve also come to that conclusion but was trying to get close. You are right about edits and speed ups. Will do a test mill soon and get going.
