Well, this project took some mental aerobics to get up and running. Fun, definitely did not "make" money on it. But it was an excellent opportunity to LEARN. I am a bit embarrassed to admit I haven't done any "finger cam" since close to 10 years ago. Nearly everything I have run has been conversation, EIA, or I did the modeling and CAM.
I took raw, nearly worthless code from Fusion and hacked and slashed it until I got something that worked. Admittedly, there were some failures along the way, including breaking one of the $52 PH Horn inserts.
This was due to A being an idiot, and B not closely reviewing the Fusion code before expanding the code. When the insert broke, my rotation was correct(135*), but the face I was positioned over was the opposite. Fusion had X+ Y- instead of X- Y+.
So the cost break down works something like this.
I scored a $125 holder off ebay instead of $200. So that helped.
Inserts were $105 for two 5/32 inserts. I had to modify the back of them to fit into the hole.
$1000 of fiddle farting around figuring out how to do what I wanted to do.
3 months off my life due to the stress of intentionally running a non turning spindle into part.... intentionally.
I chickened out running the broaching tool. The recommended feed was 155 ipm. That scared the hell out of me. 30 ipm worked nicely. I don't mind plowing a big ass chip at mach chicken with my 1907 shaper that weighs almost as much as my S1000, but I just couldn't bring myself to run that high of a feed.
Code looked something like this:
(45 ROUGH)
G55
M09
M01
G100 G90 T20 X0.020 Y0.020 G43 Z0.77 H20 D20
M08
G00 X0.020 Y0.020
G00 Z0.77
G00 Z0.37
M19R45
G81 X0.020 Y0.020 Z-0.2092 R0.2 F30
X0.020 Y0.020
X0.022 Y0.022
X0.024 Y0.024
X0.026 Y0.026
X0.028 Y0.028
X0.030 Y0.030
G80
G00 Z0.77
I pecked out to the flat as my rough then after roughing all four faces came back and did the following finish cuts.
(45 FINISH)
G55
M09
M01
M19R45
M08
G00 X0.030 Y0.030
G00 Z0.77
G00 Z0.37
G81 X0.030 Y0.030 Z-0.2092 R0.2 F30
X0.028 Y0.032
X0.026 Y0.034
X0.032 Y0.028
X0.034 Y0.026
G80
G00 Z0.77
As you can see I took light cuts. It's Ann 4140, but I still didn't want to thump the spindle too hard. With only needing to make 10 pcs, the cycle time really wasn't an issue. With these cuts, there was no load, occasionally the Z would surpass the normal 4 green bars.
Something I learned that I am a bit ashamed I didn't know. M01 cancels all other M codes that are currently active. Who knew!
This was all a test for a small batch product that I am looking to make that currently gets broached with a tradition broach in a press. The broached feature is timed with other features in the part, and it would be nice to do it all in process to assure timing. And its faster, less handling, but DANG are the custom inserts expensive! Even when compared to a custom ground broach!
Hopefully Practical Machinist will allow me to get some pictures loaded up...