Hey guys, I really need help with a weird 3D finishing toolpath problems.
One of the things that bugged me the most with the toolpaths I'm using is that I can never get spiral finishing passes to turn out very good.
It's hard to show on camera, but the surface the ball endmill cuts on leaves weird wrinkle lines from when the tool changes direction in a corner. From what I understand, when the ball endmill is changing directions suddenly, there is an ever so slight pause before it does so, and causes the endmill to cut into the material just a slight amount. And since I'm using a spiral or morphed spiral toolpath, it has consistent stepovers from itself, which means that the dwelling point would start from a center, then work its way out in 4 diagonal directions.
Previously, my solution was to use a parallel toolpath, but having a straight back and forth cut pattern doesn't work too well in more complicated 3D surfaces. I've played around a bit with the P1-3 machine smoothing settings, but I don't seem to get much of a change. I've also tried adding feed optimization, which slows the cutter down as it approaches sharp corners, but that doesn't stop it from dwelling in them. I'm sure some setting allows me to round the toolpath, so it is one consistent flow without stops, but I'm not sure how or where to adjust that.
If anyone has run into similar problems, what did you do to solve them?