How would I mill this curved face?

[Beasponge]

Hi Everyone.

I have an issue which I am politely requesting help on please but before I continue, excuse my lack of technical knowledge - I am self taught and fairly new to CNC as well as CAD CAM.

I have a 16mm end mill and would like to generate the tool paths to cut the highlighted part of model following its contour. I do understand a ball end mill is probably better suited but for now is it possible to work with a 16mm end mill even just for roughing, assuming 16mm will not work I could use a smaller one.

My attempts at generating the tool paths using pocket, 3d pocket results in a single line for the Z axis to go up and down and thats it. I have no idea what I am doing wrong.



Here are the dimensions for anyone who is interested.



I really hope my post makes sense, I am horrible at trying to explain myself.

Thank you.

[jmaustpc]

Welcome to FreeCAD.

I don't know about you specific issue however your FreeCAD version is obsolete, it's about 2 years older than the now current 0.19 which has something like 7 thousand commits of code with bug fixes and new features. Path WB has been developed a lot during the 0.19 development cycle.

[RatonLaveur]

I second the advice above. With the 0.19 version you will have a more complete and more robust set of CAM tools.

Regarding your specific part, it really depends. with work-holding I would hold the part not the way it is shown in your 3D view, but on the side, so that a simple 2D path with and endmill could machine the rounded edges.

the alternative is to attack the curves from the top (like half-pipe at a skate-park) but this is more complex and the result will be less satisfactory.

[Beasponge]

Welcome to FreeCAD.

I don't know about you specific issue however your FreeCAD version is obsolete, it's about 2 years older than the now current 0.19 which has something like 7 thousand commits of code with bug fixes and new features. Path WB has been developed a lot during the 0.19 development cycle.

Thank you for the kind welcome. I had an issue with 0.19 because I stupidly deleted all the tools that came with part work bench and couldn't get them back - this is the option to create new tools that I speak of.

[Beasponge]

I second the advice above. With the 0.19 version you will have a more complete and more robust set of CAM tools.

Regarding your specific part, it really depends. with work-holding I would hold the part not the way it is shown in your 3D view, but on the side, so that a simple 2D path with and endmill could machine the rounded edges.

the alternative is to attack the curves from the top (like half-pipe at a skate-park) but this is more complex and the result will be less satisfactory.

Hi - thank you for the advice.

Unfortunately the part cannot be turned on it's side for milling, It has to be attacked like the half pipe skate - park example you mentioned. The reasoning behind this is because I just want the g - code for this particular type of cut as it will be used to mill several features (that look like the model above) on a shaft that is much bigger than the CNC machine. So I will manually indicate the shaft after every milling operation but the cut needs to be the same, hence the reason why I made a model of what the cut should look like.

[herbk]

Hi Beasponge,

I had an issue with 0.19 because I stupidly deleted all the tools that came with part work bench and couldn't get them back

usualy deleting (or renaming for keeping it as backup) the user.config at your .FreeCAD folder dos the trick.

At FC 0.19 you have 3D Pocket and 3D Surface for shapes like that.

halfpipe.jpg (56.6 KiB) Viewed 2238 times

[Beasponge]

Hi Beasponge,

I had an issue with 0.19 because I stupidly deleted all the tools that came with part work bench and couldn't get them back

usualy deleting (or renaming for keeping it as backup) the user.config at your .FreeCAD folder dos the trick.

At FC 0.19 you have 3D Pocket and 3D Surface for shapes like that.

halfpipe.jpg

This is amazing , thank you so much but to a layman could you please explain how you made this tool path - sorry to be a pain.

[herbk]

Hi Beasponge,

first thing is: you have to get 0.19 running and you have to enable the experimental features and you have tom have OpenCamLib installed.
Witch the update to 0.19, FC changes the tool management. You can use your old Tooltable by switching at the Path preferences to "use legacy tools". This can be a workaround for your tool problem for the moment, but you should change to toolbits, because using Legacy Tools is like riding a deth horse...

The rest is easy to explane: Select the facees you want to mill, click at 3D Surface and set the milling preferences to your needs.

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Path_3DSurface

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Path_experimental


https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=54307

[chrisb]

you have to get 0.19 running and you have to enable the experimental features and you have tom have OpenCamLib installed.

... and you have to enable OpenCamLib in Preferences->Path->Advanced.

[Beasponge]

Hi Beasponge,

first thing is: you have to get 0.19 running and you have to enable the experimental features and you have tom have OpenCamLib installed.
Witch the update to 0.19, FC changes the tool management. You can use your old Tooltable by switching at the Path preferences to "use legacy tools". This can be a workaround for your tool problem for the moment, but you should change to toolbits, because using Legacy Tools is like riding a deth horse...

The rest is easy to explane: Select the facees you want to mill, click at 3D Surface and set the milling preferences to your needs.

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Path_3DSurface

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Path_experimental


https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=54307

Thank you for the information. I am very grateful for your help

I managed to get my tools back in 0.19, this is how I did it in-case anyone else is interested. I am using an appimage in Ubuntu and whilst I am sure there is a much better way to fix this problem, all I did was go into my home folder, find the Freecad folder and deleted it, after that I restarted the appimage it was like resetting it to factory settings. Fortunately, I am new to Freecad so a hard reset like this didn't affect me much. It's probably not such a good idea for those who have heavily customized version to do this, it will most likely delete all your settings.