Today I finished cleaning up the front of the shop and office area, then started programming the CAM for a new contract that came in the other day.
The part is a flat plate in stainless steel with a few threaded holes and locating pins built into it. The stainless we are using is cold rolled, which means there is a lot of surface tension in the material. Just like the small stainless buttons, I worked on a couple of weeks ago, when I removed the part from the soft jaws, it sprung out at me. The same thing will happen with this plate, and so my boss instructed me how to work around it. I was to take 0.02" off of the top and bottom of the stock, then 0.05" facing step-downs evenly until I got the actual height. By removing the small amount of material first from both sides, it would release the tension in the material and prevent it from bending later on.
Since there are the locating features on the top face of the plate, it means the overall height of the stock has to be higher to match the highest point in the model, which requires a ton of material removal to leave just the pins. Wayne wanted me to use a parallel facing operation to cut down the material, avoiding the pins. Still, unfortunately, there isn't an option in the facing toolpath to avoid certain areas. So I played around with a few different toolpaths to see what would work best and leave an excellent surface finish. I found that the 2D pocket clearing worked the best, I was able to avoid the pins and have a decent looking path.
The part has a unique shape, and so I'll be making and using a fixture plate for it and locating pins, which I am excited for!