How viable would it be to implement something like lead in / lead out?
(New users can only post one image so I will try putting it in a comment after this, but I tried to steal the “tangent” lead in / out image from here: Lead Moves (Lead In and Lead Out))
Basically doing the actual plunge outside the part and then coming into the cut?
I’m happy to do the work myself if it seems like it would be possible to implement, or if there is a good reason that it would be hard to do maybe someone can save me from banging my head on the wall
it’s not technically hard to add a lead-in if you know it’s a “safe” starting point. so the question is whether it can be automated or if it requires human input and thus a new UI element.
was the cut shown above done as a single plunge or with multiple step downs? did you try the “wide cutout” option on the outline operation?
That’s a great point. I was assuming that it was always safe because we are coming from outside the part, but depending on the part shape that might not be true
This wasn’t done using the wide cutouts option, do you think that would help? I just played around with it a little and it seems like it adds a second profile cut, but plunge action is the same so I think it might have similar results
it could depending on what is causing the deflection of your tool into the material. you could try that alone and in combination with changing up climb/conventional cutting direction.
I’m using a somewhat unconventional machine (https://www.maslowcnc.com/) that is really designed to cut big things from soft plywood so cutting small things from walnut is pushing the limits of what it does well. It just doesn’t love to plunge.
I’ll give those suggestions a try! I might also add my tabs in CAD and then I can control where the plunge happens that way. Just bumping them out slightly from the part so the plunge happens not right against the wall.
This is 100% a weird machine quirk and not a CAM issue, I’m just trying to compensate for physical inaccuracies with software
I added tabs in CAD thinking that I could push the raise and lower motions away from the part, but I’ve just created a pocket which actually adds more up and down motions
I wonder if it would be safe to assume that it’s OK to do lead-in where the tabs are placed? That way the location is user selected (when the tabs are placed), but it doesn’t add a whole new UI mechanic
