GearHeads Corner

One thing I noticed when machining the 17 tooth gear on the A axis was that it tool 36 minutes with a 20 IPM feed rate. I also noticed that there was a lot of time cutting in air (the cutter was off the tooth ) and that the retract distance was way to much. When you work on the simulation and the G code I hope you will look at optimizing the tool path so it takes less time to machine a small geat.
Thanks for a wonderful program.
Dan Mauch

Hi Dan:

  In theory, if the blank is perfect and the tool is exact, it will not cut air at all. It shaves only to the tip. BUT, anything not being perfect reflects as air time. Im hoping simulation will show me exactly what happens in all cases. Thanks for the experience , it all helps,

Art