Hey all
I have a question on REST Machining.
I do simple recessed sign letters. 1/4" followed by a 1/8" bit.
I noticed that the Rest cut spends a lot of time cutting nothing.
Upon looking deeper into the toolpath:
See the image of the toolpaths below
Red 1/4" endmill
Blue 1/8" endmill
At the top and the middle of the “a” it appears to have no need to run a REST cut in these areas. nothing is cut
The bottom of the “a” makes sense, however it seems that the cut path is larger then needed verses the minimal amount in the corners.
Why ???
Not a big deal on a one off however on a whole sign it takes up lots of time doing nothing. And depending on the size of the lettering it can be quite severe with the rest taking 4 to 5 times longer then needed. This is just a simple example.
Thanks
Are you certain you used the correct “Previous Diameter” in your rest milling path?
You can see at the bottom of the “a” and top of the “n” the first tool did not make it through those sections. Perhaps the software thinks it also didn’t make it through the top & middle of the “a” ??
Maybe try cheating the Previous Diameter with a slightly smaller value. 0.245 ???
But make sure it still gets the 2 areas where it should.
Edit: I just tried a similar example & had to reduce the Previous Diameter to 0.150 to get good results
@Tod1d Thanks for the extra there.
That looks better.
So you got me thinking, I tried entered the Previous “radius” verses the “diameter” and it looks way better.
I have not cut it yet but the simulation looks good.
Thank you so kindly.
This is why I love this forum, 2 or more heads are always better than 1
This will save me a lot of time.
@robgrz, Is this a typo between Previous Diameter and Radius ? or a calculation oops ? Or a user oops ??
