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Yes, it's aluminum. The top and bottom are a little offset, but mostly have a burr that has been hard to remove with a deburring tool or a mild file. The missing area was from when my system had what seemed to be a power glitch and then resumed cutting improperly. It cut in an area it wasn't...

While I'm not done with the conn rod, I completed my first experimental piece - which my system turned into scrap very early in the process - but while it isn't possible to complete this, it actually came out fairly well. As I mentioned in the previous post, several of us have had a lot of...

Between my G-code simulator (GWizard Editor from CNCCookbook), the simulator in Mach3 and cutting in the air above the part, I've been fairly good about finding the mistakes before actually cutting metal. I had to be out of the house and shop all day yesterday, but I had converged on what...

Thanks for this. Looking back, it seems I've manually written G-code quite a lot. Doing subroutines and those more "advanced" concepts you have would help me out. When I made my Webster, I hand wrote the code to cut the rod to its final depth between the two bosses. The two rods are rather...

I think my big, dumb mistake was to use the straight line approach, especially in the long direction of the rod. Strictly my choice of the wrong approach and not DeskProto's fault. As it turns out, though, it's an OK approach for a rough cut followed by a contour cut. There are things that...

Congratulations, Brian. Looks good, runs even better.

If I remember correctly (ha!) that's turned into the Radius term, the R=0.470. You can see the radius dimension on the drawing as well as where I had both I and J called out. The center of the circle is a X=0.000 Y=0.281. The radius is to the center of tool path, which is 3/16" farther away...

The last time I machined a cam was for my Webster, and that one has a fairly simple design. I wrote the G-code from scratch by modeling the part in CAD so I could find the ends of different curves. Probably easier to show. The white is the solid tube I started with, gold is the imported cam...

Yes, it will leave some margin on all sides. The way it cuts air over the part (leaves the same amount of stock above Z=0) would make sense if I was cutting something other than bar stock. Can't think of an example, but something lumpy so that there was something up above zero to cut. I have...

I think that's essence of this whole thread. To be a pain in the *** about it, it's the CAM program that's the issue. I'm fine with my CAD program. Nope. It has two options that are similar, waterline and contour. Waterline allows me to set a step vertically and (I thought) a keep out...

Thanks, K2. Obviously I'm not Brian, but this is helpful to me in general terms. I'm not building a Corliss. One of the great things about HMEM is that we can see new solutions for problems we all come across. I don't have a problem with Brian's solution, but I couldn't implement the silver...

Thought I'd update everyone on what I've been up to. Over the last few days, I did my epoxy pour and worked on the tool paths to do the second side. I thought of ways I'd like to improve the first side machining, and here's what I came up with. I thought the first thing I'd do is a contour...

Aside from some "life interrupts us sometimes" stuff, I've mostly been wrestling with software for my CNC parts, both CAD and CAM. I've been meaning to post on it, but I'm working on the piston conn rod. I still haven't finished one, but I'm getting incrementally closer. I had a couple of...

Interesting. I've been having issues with my CAM program, DeskProto, not doing things I'd like it to do. I'm adapting, but there are still some things I don't think it can be convinced to do.

Terry, What CAM program are you using? Part of Solidworks or does it read their files? Bob

Since I also have a 3D printer and two different slicer programs for it - the printer version of a CAM program - I wondered if it could import the VRML file (.wrl format). One in particular is very good at looking at the numbers and asking you if the file is really in inches. I figured when it...

Fascinating. Thanks! A quick check in both my version 5 and 7 programs shows DeskProto will work on .STL, DXF or VRML files. DXF for 2D machining. The conn rod is almost 2D: not really but maybe close enough to be useful for some things. (in software I used to work with there's a concept...

This has turned into a valuable learning experience, for which I thank you all. I ran a contour pass with the margin set to .004" but with the step size along the path still set to .0147" That made a noticeable improvement but there were still marks where the steps had been. Unfortunately...

DeskProto says it's configured for Mach 3 but I haven't tried to see if I get G2 or G3 by trying another processor. Haven't opened that can of worms.

I meant to reply to this yesterday, Greg. I read that thread when it was posted and totally forgot. Thanks for the reminder.