The primary method for producing your mould tool is for the cutter to remove a prescribed volume of material to produce a pocket or cavity. The tool will scan or zig-zag in Z layers and use the surfaces of your reference model as a boundary for the volume to be machined.

As the cutter is taking reasonably large cuts there can be some tool deflection which will result in an imperfect boundary to the cavity, for this reason it generally best practise to machine the volume then to re-machine the perimeter of the volume. We can also leave a ‘stock allowance’ – an offset – on the perimeter for machining a clean boundary.

We have 2 sequences which can be used to machine a cavity:

The Roughing sequence using the standard dashboard environment and the Volume Rough uses the old menu manager environment. Although they have slightly different characteristics, with the correct setting and fine tuning they will produce the same end result.

 

Machining the cavity profile

There are 2 methods for finish machining the cavity perimeter:

The Volume Rough sequence has a PROF_STOCK_ALLOW and PROF_ONLY parameters which could be used to leave a small amount of material on the profile and then repeat the volume mill but only machine the profile.

 

Rest Mill

For time efficiency the cavity should be machined with a large diameter cutter regardless of any small radii on the perimeter. This will inevitably leave areas which the large diameter cutter cannot access, these can be removed with a rest milling sequence. We have 2 options for this: