I've been pretty sick for the last 4 days, but in between sleeping and feeling like death I've been working on the toolpaths for the handle scales. Took quite a while as they're fairly complicated.
The work paid off though and on the second shot I'm getting very close!
Here's the first attempt:
The main problem with this one is that the contour over the top of the scales is way off, the speeds and feeds also needed tweaking as some surfaces were far too coarse. The drill paths were also way too conservative and took quite a while to run.
The second attempt was much better overall even though it only took about half as long to run!:
The diameter of the radiusing tool is very slightly off which left a ridge in the middle, the chamfer path was also accidentally set to 'roll around corners' instead of 'keep corners sharp' which rounded off one corner that it should not have. The depth of the chamfer toolpath and radiusing toolpath also need to be tweaked slightly, but then I should be pretty much good to go!
I'm really pleased with how close these look to the ones I make by hand! Pretty much identical except more consistent!
Watching the machine rip through the G10 is actually a bit scary! The tools are taking big cuts because G10 is a fairly soft material, but it's also very abrasive so you want to minimize the number of cuts each tool has to make (thanks to Nathan for his wisdom on that front!). The profile of the scales is cut with a 1/4" solid carbide 2 flute endmill at 7500RPM and 120 inches per minute!
My plan is to use the Haimer 3D sensor for in-process inspection to keep my tolerances on the handle scales pretty tight. Basically there will be a toolpath to move the probe to a couple of key points where it should read zero, the actual reading will then be entered into a macro in the program which will comp the finishing tool diameter and length, then the finishing passes will be run. Should be fun!
