Pencil Milling Part 2

In this post, I want to explain some of the options for working with Flow Cut.  I find that new users consistently struggle with understanding some of these options.

First up is Max…

Pencil Milling Part 1

“Pencil Milling” is the name given to a machining strategy where a small-diameter ball end mill is used to perform finish milling in small nooks and crannies of a complex mold or die.  The word …

Machining Steep and Non-steep Geometry (Part 2)

In my last post, I showed several wrong ways to machine steep and non-steep geometry.  In this post, I will show a method that is better.

NX CAM can scrutinize a model and determine…

Tool Path Divide

  If you really want to scare an NC programmer, just show them a deep, narrow cavity on your latest design, and then comment that you must have a mirror-like surface finish at the bottom. …

Roughing and Re-roughing

In NX CAM we refer to a specific set of machining instructions as an operation.  For example, finish-milling a planar face would be one operation.  To spotdrill, drill, and bore a hole requ…

Evolution of Tool Paths

How did tool paths get this complicated?  This article traces the roots of tool paths evolution.

The primary purpose of modern Computer Aided Machining (CAM) programs is to create eff…