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Hit a bad toolpath on a $300 block of aluminum yesterday
I was running a job in Akron last week, hogging out a 6061 block for a customer fixture. About 30 minutes in, the machine started making this weird harmonic whine I hadn't heard before. I let it ride like a dummy because the cycle looked fine on the sim. Came back to find a gouge halfway through the part. Turns out my post processor was outputting a different feed rate than what I had set in the CAM. The solution was stupid simple - I started verifying the G-code feed numbers against the CAM file before hitting cycle start. Took me 10 minutes to check, saved me from scrapping another block. Has anyone else caught a mismatch like this between their CAM and actual G-code?
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simon7172mo ago
Yeah I mean who even needs to check that stuff right? Just let the machine do its thing and hope for the best. I had a post once that was swapping my feed and speed values around and I ran a 1" rougher at 12000 rpm with a feed of like 3 ipm. Worked great until the insert exploded and sent a piece of carbide through the enclosure door. Now I just print out the G-code and do a quick readthrough while my coffee brews. Takes longer to set up the coffee than to catch a stupid post processor bug.
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mark_thomas2mo ago
Yeah no kidding. I caught a post that was dropping my feedrate override codes entirely. Found it when the machine started climbing a corner at full rapids. Now I spot check every damn line before I trust the CAM.
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simonp4726d ago
You said that the post was dropping your feedrate override codes entirely. I'm curious what post processor you were using when that happened. I had a similar issue with a Haas post from one of the big CAM companies that would strip out my M00 and M01 lines if they were on a line with any other code, and it took me weeks to figure that one out lol. @simon717 you ever run into something like that with the swapping feed and speed bug you mentioned?
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