CNC West Feb March 2019

56 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST February/March 2019 “The time - saving results from using the software for high speed machining mill work is amazing,” Miyamoto said. “Just put in ‘percent of a tool width’ that you want to take a cut at, and let it go!” middle of the part are no problem, even with the high speed toolpaths. We don’t have to worry about the air cuts or the tool coming up and down,” he said. Miyamoto also noted that being able to program the machines to do exactly what he wants saves tool life because he can avoid collisions and tool breakage. “In SOLIDWORKS, I can draw quick fixtures, locate my bolt heads, and tell it to avoid this area. Then I flip back over to the Mastercam side, tell it exactly what I’ve drawn. This is “a zone of error”, so it enters the part inside a pocket so I don’t have to come in from the outside. Really, as long as you fill out everything correctly, it does exactly what you want.” By being able to set-up collision parameters, he said, he can put in zones to avoid. “Let’s say you have a clamp in your way. It’s great to have the flexibility to say, ‘Okay this is a zone and I’ve got a clamp here. And there’s a bolt head, so I need to raise it up higher.’” Miyamoto used the example of an automotive air cleaner assembly job he completed recently to describe the flawless, worry-free operation of his machines once he has programmed the software with the right instruc- tions. “The piece was 24 x 18 inches and required me to work right on the table. We laid it out in SOLIDWORKS so it lined up over the T-slot holes. Then we made custom T- slot nuts to offset the bolts to the outside of the T-slot so we could come around and machine within those bolts,” he said. “Not only was I able to tell Mastercam the exact loca- tion of the bolts, but I programmed my ‘avoid here’ in- structions so the machine would not hit the bolts. I sim- ply drew my boundaries and said, ‘Okay, machine here because I can put a 1-inch end mill inside something and say 15% step-over’. The best part is I can trust it’ll all hap- pen just the way I programmed it, and simply walk away.” For another customer, a leading high-end shock ab- sorber manufacturer in Southern California, Moto Proto is ideally equipped to make prototype parts and tooling for their assembly lines. “There are a lot of small little parts that go inside a shock absorber. They’re shaped like a piston – round – and they have tapered walls in all di- rections. Before, I would have needed a tapered end mill for jobs like that. Now, I just grab a sixteenth ball end mill and taper the walls.” They also use the software to make a lot of their own Grooves are machined into the tool base; “The time-saving results from using the software for high speed machining mill work is amazing,” Miyamoto said. “Just put in ‘percent of a tool width’ that you want to take a cut at, and let it go!” Grooves are machined into the tool base; Grooves are machined into the tool base; v ar c i ed i t th t l ;