What are the benefits of CNC milling over manual milling? Milling is a manufacturing process in which a part is made by the removal of material around it, specifically by advancing a cutting tool into stock material to cut away the excess. In the vast majority of milling applications, the cutting tool rotates at incredibly fast speeds. It can be used to shave parts down, drill or tap holes, and more. Milling is one of [...]
The irony in automation is that it takes a lot of creativity to automate any process, but at the same time any automated process has zero inherent creativity – it is just a mindless repetition of preselected steps. While it is good for the process itself to be uncreative (no one wants their machining to go off-script), programmers themselves must often stretch their imaginations when finding ways to automate and save time. Here are a [...]
Mastercam Lathe generates the best G-code possible to direct a CNC turning machine. It takes a 3D CAD model of a part, applies toolpaths to it to create a machining plan, and then outputs that information to the CNC lathe. The Mastercam Lathe product does this and more. Its optimized, stock-aware toolpaths can be applied to a program with minimal time and mouse miles. It also offers a customizable tool library where programmers can digitally [...]
If you’re considering adding lathe software to your shop, here are the five most important things to know. 1. It Can Take a Part from Start to Finish With the right CNC lathe software, you should be able to set up your part on one machine (hopefully just once) and run it until completion. Your software should be able to direct roughing, grooving, threading, and finishing the vast majority of your turned projects. If it [...]
What are the benefits of upgrading a 2D mill or router seat to 3D? The Mastercam products referred to as 2D and single surface 3D allow some limited 3D machining, however, they can be updated at any time. This upgrade is referred to as Multi-surface 3D and it adds significant capabilities beyond just the multiple-surface 3D machining capability including: Stock awareness that prevents wasted time in “air cuts” Multi-thread processing for efficient multi-tasking Seamless integration [...]
Mastercam 2023 now gives you choices for mapping colors identically or independently in the main interface and the Mastercam Simulator often referred to as Mastercam Verify. In previous versions of Mastercam, color mapping in the main interface was completely independent of the Simulator and was also tied to the simple 256-color palette of Windows. However, the Simulator uses the HTML color palette which, while it supports many more color definitions, uses a different naming convention [...]
There is a new feature in the Mastercam 2023 Multiaxis Deburr toolpath that allows you to more easily program your models. Typically, when using the deburr toolpath, you would need to modify your models to remove the modeled chamfers in order to program to a sharp corner. Now, with the latest Mastercam release, there is a new option available when using automatic edge detection called Include Unsharp Edges. Here’s how to use it. In the [...]
This blog post will cover a new Mastercam 2023 Tool Axis Control strategy for the multiaxis toolpaths called Tilt Relative to Reference Surface. In previous versions of Mastercam, you needed to utilize the Clean Core machining method to achieve this style of tool axis control. This meant creating a simplified surface under the part to drive the tool axis control and then offsetting the toolpath using a collision control strategy. This added a substantial amount [...]
