G-code help needed...
 

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.


I'd be happy to help out Pete.

--
John R. Carroll

Great, thanks. I'm trying to make some 3D egg cake molds for a friend's
bakery. It seems that some commercial molds are available for very big
eggs or for small eggs, but not mid sized ones. I'm planning to laminate
up some oak or similar to mill the dies out of, add some guide pins and
then press the pan halves out of aluminum flashing material (~.015").
I've got 1/8", 1/4" and 3/4" ball end mills on hand, along with the
usual assortment of regular end mills for roughing. I'll be running this
on my little CNC'd X2 mill since I haven't found an "Iggy" deal on a
larger CNC mill to refit yet.

Thanks,

Pete C.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or
so. The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for
Mach3.


I'd be happy to help out Pete.

--
John R. Carroll

Great, thanks. I'm trying to make some 3D egg cake molds for a
friend's bakery. It seems that some commercial molds are available
for very big eggs or for small eggs, but not mid sized ones. I'm
planning to laminate up some oak or similar to mill the dies out of,
add some guide pins and then press the pan halves out of aluminum
flashing material (~.015"). I've got 1/8", 1/4" and 3/4" ball end
mills on hand, along with the usual assortment of regular end mills
for roughing. I'll be running this on my little CNC'd X2 mill since I
haven't found an "Iggy" deal on a larger CNC mill to refit yet.

I'm farting around with a solid model of an egg right now.
Do you have a sketch?


--
John R. Carroll

No sketch really, just a moderately large egg shape cut in half axially,
so that two pans pressed out with the die set can be clamped together to
bake a solid egg.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.


3.5" Dia X 4.97" LOA

--
John R. Carroll



That sounds like a good size, and one that should fit the small work
envelope of an X2 mill. Also the 1.75" draw depth should hopefully be
small enough that the AL flashing material will press ok. I've got a
basic 20T H press which should do the job. Since this is to bake cake
which will get frosted, the surface finish doesn't have to be perfect.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or
so. The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for
Mach3.


3.5" Dia X 4.97" LOA



That sounds like a good size, and one that should fit the small work
envelope of an X2 mill. Also the 1.75" draw depth should hopefully be
small enough that the AL flashing material will press ok. I've got a
basic 20T H press which should do the job. Since this is to bake cake
which will get frosted, the surface finish doesn't have to be perfect.

Send me a valid e-mail address and I'll send a dimensioned drawing as a PDF
file.
You can let me know if I'm on the right track.
I think you will have to experiment a little with your technique to get a
good result but once we have a solid, programming or reprogramming changes
it is a trivial excercise.

--
John R. Carroll


aux34 at snet dot net

I have TurboCAD, so I can view a variety of 3D models, it's the 3D CAM
that I'm lacking, I use SheetCAM.

Thanks,

Pete C.

G-code help needed...
 

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.



I would help, but it sounds like you already have better qualified
helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die huh? Interesting. I
take it that it will be a modestly small production run then?

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to
generate some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for
a half egg shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press.
The egg would be approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length
perhaps ~4.5" or so. The pos/neg die clearance should be .020".
Post processor for Mach3.


3.5" Dia X 4.97" LOA



That sounds like a good size, and one that should fit the small work
envelope of an X2 mill. Also the 1.75" draw depth should hopefully
be small enough that the AL flashing material will press ok. I've
got a basic 20T H press which should do the job. Since this is to
bake cake which will get frosted, the surface finish doesn't have
to be perfect.

Send me a valid e-mail address and I'll send a dimensioned drawing
as a PDF file.
You can let me know if I'm on the right track.
I think you will have to experiment a little with your technique to
get a good result but once we have a solid, programming or
reprogramming changes it is a trivial excercise.

--
John R. Carroll


aux34 at snet dot net

I have TurboCAD, so I can view a variety of 3D models, it's the 3D CAM
that I'm lacking, I use SheetCAM.

The ZIP file contains an Iges translation.

--
John R. Carroll


That looks perfect. I'll glue up blocks that are 7.5"x12"x3" thick or so
to mill the die halves in. It looks like it should be millable with the
3/4" ball mill I have possibly? Perhaps roughing with a 1/2" EM? My X2
will do ~2,500 RPM and about 30 IPM.

Thanks,

Pete C.

G-code help needed...
 

Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better qualified
helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die huh? Interesting. I
take it that it will be a modestly small production run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press plates) to
form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth needed. If it works
well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a couple dozen pieces or so.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to
generate some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for
a half egg shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press.
The egg would be approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable
length perhaps ~4.5" or so. The pos/neg die clearance should be
.020". Post processor for Mach3.


3.5" Dia X 4.97" LOA



That sounds like a good size, and one that should fit the small
work envelope of an X2 mill. Also the 1.75" draw depth should
hopefully be small enough that the AL flashing material will
press ok. I've got a basic 20T H press which should do the job.
Since this is to bake cake which will get frosted, the surface
finish doesn't have to be perfect.

Send me a valid e-mail address and I'll send a dimensioned drawing
as a PDF file.
You can let me know if I'm on the right track.
I think you will have to experiment a little with your technique to
get a good result but once we have a solid, programming or
reprogramming changes it is a trivial excercise.

--
John R. Carroll


aux34 at snet dot net

I have TurboCAD, so I can view a variety of 3D models, it's the 3D
CAM that I'm lacking, I use SheetCAM.

The ZIP file contains an Iges translation.

--
John R. Carroll


That looks perfect. I'll glue up blocks that are 7.5"x12"x3" thick or
so to mill the die halves in. It looks like it should be millable
with the 3/4" ball mill I have possibly? Perhaps roughing with a 1/2"
EM? My X2 will do ~2,500 RPM and about 30 IPM.

I'll send set up sheets and tool lists with the code.

--
John R. Carroll

Cool, thanks :)

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or
so. The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for
Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better qualified
helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die huh?
Interesting. I take it that it will be a modestly small production
run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press plates)
to form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth needed. If it
works well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a couple dozen
pieces or so.

Get some industrial thickness aluminum foil and press four or five layers
into the mold one layer at a time.
That's something your friend could do on his or her own, uding the core (
not drawm yet) as a pestle.

--
John R. Carroll


At about .015" the AL flashing material is relatively thin and soft yet
should be solid enough to be reasonably durable, hopefully it will
behave ok.

G-code help needed...
 

On 4/21/2011 4:45 PM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or
so. The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for
Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better qualified
helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die huh?
Interesting. I take it that it will be a modestly small production
run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press plates)
to form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth needed. If it
works well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a couple dozen
pieces or so.

Get some industrial thickness aluminum foil and press four or five layers
into the mold one layer at a time.
That's something your friend could do on his or her own, uding the core (
not drawm yet) as a pestle.

--
John R. Carroll


At about .015" the AL flashing material is relatively thin and soft yet
should be solid enough to be reasonably durable, hopefully it will
behave ok.


My other thought/comment/question.

I know they make aluminum cooking pans, but is there a particular
grade/alloy/type for food products like baking pans?

G-code help needed...
 

Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 4:45 PM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or
so. The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for
Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better qualified
helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die huh?
Interesting. I take it that it will be a modestly small production
run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press plates)
to form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth needed. If it
works well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a couple dozen
pieces or so.

Get some industrial thickness aluminum foil and press four or five layers
into the mold one layer at a time.
That's something your friend could do on his or her own, uding the core (
not drawm yet) as a pestle.

--
John R. Carroll


At about .015" the AL flashing material is relatively thin and soft yet
should be solid enough to be reasonably durable, hopefully it will
behave ok.

My other thought/comment/question.

I know they make aluminum cooking pans, but is there a particular
grade/alloy/type for food products like baking pans?

Not that I'm aware of. There would be at least two alloys used, one for
case goods and one for formed goods.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Bob La Londe wrote:
On 4/21/2011 4:45 PM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to
generate some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for
a half egg shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press.
The egg would be approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable
length perhaps ~4.5" or so. The pos/neg die clearance should be
.020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better qualified
helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die huh?
Interesting. I take it that it will be a modestly small
production run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press
plates) to form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth
needed. If it works well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a
couple dozen pieces or so.

Get some industrial thickness aluminum foil and press four or five
layers into the mold one layer at a time.
That's something your friend could do on his or her own, uding the
core ( not drawm yet) as a pestle.


At about .015" the AL flashing material is relatively thin and soft
yet should be solid enough to be reasonably durable, hopefully it
will behave ok.


My other thought/comment/question.

I know they make aluminum cooking pans, but is there a particular
grade/alloy/type for food products like baking pans?

I think there is.
He's got the code for both halves of his tool now, probably quicker than he
thought, so Pete is probably scrounging material to make the thing out of.
LOL

--
John R. Carroll


Yep, I've got pieces ready for glue up and I'm going to go out to the
shop in a few minutes to do the glue up. I will probably stack up a bit
of foam board if I have enough on hand to do a test while the glue is
drying on the wood.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Bob La Londe wrote:
On 4/21/2011 4:45 PM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to
generate some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code
for a half egg shape, a positive and a negative to use in a
press. The egg would be approximately 3.5" diameter by a
suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so. The pos/neg die clearance
should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better
qualified helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die
huh? Interesting. I take it that it will be a modestly small
production run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press
plates) to form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth
needed. If it works well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a
couple dozen pieces or so.

Get some industrial thickness aluminum foil and press four or five
layers into the mold one layer at a time.
That's something your friend could do on his or her own, uding the
core ( not drawm yet) as a pestle.


At about .015" the AL flashing material is relatively thin and soft
yet should be solid enough to be reasonably durable, hopefully it
will behave ok.


My other thought/comment/question.

I know they make aluminum cooking pans, but is there a particular
grade/alloy/type for food products like baking pans?

I think there is.
He's got the code for both halves of his tool now, probably quicker
than he thought, so Pete is probably scrounging material to make the
thing out of. LOL


Yep, I've got pieces ready for glue up and I'm going to go out to the
shop in a few minutes to do the glue up. I will probably stack up a
bit of foam board if I have enough on hand to do a test while the
glue is drying on the wood.

OK but I ran a full simulation here before sending it.
Still, not a bad idea.

--
John R. Carroll

The blocks are glued and clamped, they should be ready tomorrow
afternoon. I need to eventually find some affordable 3D CAM software as
well as a good simulator. The problem of course is that all I do is
really hobby stuff, so I can't justify really expensive stuff.

G-code help needed...
 

"Pete C." wrote in message
ster.com...

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Bob La Londe wrote:
On 4/21/2011 4:45 PM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/21/2011 10:40 AM, Pete C. wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to
generate some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code
for a half egg shape, a positive and a negative to use in a
press. The egg would be approximately 3.5" diameter by a
suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so. The pos/neg die clearance
should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

I would help, but it sounds like you already have better
qualified helpers than me. Laminated hardwood stamp and die
huh? Interesting. I take it that it will be a modestly small
production run then?

I'm hoping oak will be sufficient (backed by 3/4" steel press
plates) to form relatively soft AL flashing at the 1.75" depth
needed. If it works well, I wouldn't expect to press more than a
couple dozen pieces or so.

Get some industrial thickness aluminum foil and press four or five
layers into the mold one layer at a time.
That's something your friend could do on his or her own, uding the
core ( not drawm yet) as a pestle.


At about .015" the AL flashing material is relatively thin and soft
yet should be solid enough to be reasonably durable, hopefully it
will behave ok.


My other thought/comment/question.

I know they make aluminum cooking pans, but is there a particular
grade/alloy/type for food products like baking pans?

I think there is.
He's got the code for both halves of his tool now, probably quicker
than he thought, so Pete is probably scrounging material to make the
thing out of. LOL


Yep, I've got pieces ready for glue up and I'm going to go out to the
shop in a few minutes to do the glue up. I will probably stack up a
bit of foam board if I have enough on hand to do a test while the
glue is drying on the wood.

OK but I ran a full simulation here before sending it.
Still, not a bad idea.

--
John R. Carroll

The blocks are glued and clamped, they should be ready tomorrow
afternoon. I need to eventually find some affordable 3D CAM software as
well as a good simulator. The problem of course is that all I do is
really hobby stuff, so I can't justify really expensive stuff.

I am not 100% good with it, but ViaCad 2D/3d is only $100. The STLs it
makes will import into CamBam.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

The blocks are glued and clamped, they should be ready tomorrow
afternoon. I need to eventually find some affordable 3D CAM software
as well as a good simulator. The problem of course is that all I do is
really hobby stuff, so I can't justify really expensive stuff.

There is about $70K worth of software and hardware focused on this.
Haha!

I think there are a couple of software products around that could programm
these parts for free.
I'll see if I have the original release of FreeMill around somewhere.
Ir was easy, worked OK and the price was right.

You'd still need a modeller but there again, you could use Rhino or one of
it's many clones.
Hobby guys seem to love it.

--
John R. Carroll



I've got TurboCAD Pro V17, so I should be ok on the CAD end, other than
learning more of the 3D end of it beyond what I've been doing. It's the
CAM end I need to upgrade beyond SheetCAM, and of course finding a good
simulator.

G-code help needed...
 

"John R. Carroll" wrote:


There was/is a Russian CAM product that is pretty good by all accounts and
an excellent value.
I think it's called MADCAM or something.

MADCAM is a plug-in for Rhino created by a Swedish machinist. The MAD
in MADCAM stands for Mold and Die.
If freeform organic shapes are the goal then Rhino+MADCAM is a very
good choice.

http://www.madcamcnc.com/product.html

The below link shows one example of what Rhino can do:

http://mwt.net/~sjedging/KVBonnet.jpg

Back in the late 1800's Kennedy Valve Foundry used to make a whole line
of fire decorative hydrants with floral patterns on the bonnet. This one
is being made as a commemoration for their 150th anniversary.

-jim


-




--
John R. Carroll

G-code help needed...
 

On 4/22/2011 5:58 AM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

The blocks are glued and clamped, they should be ready tomorrow
afternoon. I need to eventually find some affordable 3D CAM software
as well as a good simulator. The problem of course is that all I do is
really hobby stuff, so I can't justify really expensive stuff.

There is about $70K worth of software and hardware focused on this.
Haha!

I think there are a couple of software products around that could programm
these parts for free.
I'll see if I have the original release of FreeMill around somewhere.
Ir was easy, worked OK and the price was right.

You'd still need a modeller but there again, you could use Rhino or one of
it's many clones.
Hobby guys seem to love it.

--
John R. Carroll



I've got TurboCAD Pro V17, so I should be ok on the CAD end, other than
learning more of the 3D end of it beyond what I've been doing. It's the
CAM end I need to upgrade beyond SheetCAM, and of course finding a good
simulator.

110 pounds for SheetCam? That does seem a little pricey for 2.5D CAM.
Its 149 dollars for CamBam and it does decent 3D 3 axis CAM. Not great,
but not bad, and its 2D / 2.5D is impeccable with some really nice
features for nesting multiple parts in the newest release. Its even
starting to implement some rudimentary speed feed stuff. Also you can
download and try the latest version totally for free. Its 40 executions
limited (which is better than time limited in my opinion) so you can set
it down if you get busy and get back to a project weeks later, and you
haven't lost any of your demo time. It is not crippled in anyway.
There is also a free version, but the free version is strictly 2.5D. I
don't think the free version is all that great, but its free. LOL.
Anyway, don't waste your time downloading the free version. Just
download the latest full release. When I did I made a lot of parts
during my demo period.

On the flip side SheetCam does look like clean basic CAM for 2.5D.

On the flip / flip side you did get working code for your application
even faster by using RCM CAM. LOL. It takes a little while to learn
everything in CamBam, but it is beginning to become quite capable of
some fairly complex work.

G-code help needed...
 

Bob La Londe wrote:

On 4/22/2011 5:58 AM, Pete C. wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote:

The blocks are glued and clamped, they should be ready tomorrow
afternoon. I need to eventually find some affordable 3D CAM software
as well as a good simulator. The problem of course is that all I do is
really hobby stuff, so I can't justify really expensive stuff.

There is about $70K worth of software and hardware focused on this.
Haha!

I think there are a couple of software products around that could programm
these parts for free.
I'll see if I have the original release of FreeMill around somewhere.
Ir was easy, worked OK and the price was right.

You'd still need a modeller but there again, you could use Rhino or one of
it's many clones.
Hobby guys seem to love it.

--
John R. Carroll



I've got TurboCAD Pro V17, so I should be ok on the CAD end, other than
learning more of the 3D end of it beyond what I've been doing. It's the
CAM end I need to upgrade beyond SheetCAM, and of course finding a good
simulator.

110 pounds for SheetCam? That does seem a little pricey for 2.5D CAM.
Its 149 dollars for CamBam and it does decent 3D 3 axis CAM. Not great,
but not bad, and its 2D / 2.5D is impeccable with some really nice
features for nesting multiple parts in the newest release. Its even
starting to implement some rudimentary speed feed stuff. Also you can
download and try the latest version totally for free. Its 40 executions
limited (which is better than time limited in my opinion) so you can set
it down if you get busy and get back to a project weeks later, and you
haven't lost any of your demo time. It is not crippled in anyway.
There is also a free version, but the free version is strictly 2.5D. I
don't think the free version is all that great, but its free. LOL.
Anyway, don't waste your time downloading the free version. Just
download the latest full release. When I did I made a lot of parts
during my demo period.

On the flip side SheetCam does look like clean basic CAM for 2.5D.

On the flip / flip side you did get working code for your application
even faster by using RCM CAM. LOL. It takes a little while to learn
everything in CamBam, but it is beginning to become quite capable of
some fairly complex work.

I've got FreeMill now and will be looking at it and trying to learn it
as time permits. It appears it should do the job once I learn it.

As for SheetCAM, it has worked nicely for the plasma and milling I've
done up to now. It's probably been helpful learning CAM stuff on 2.5D to
keep it simple.

G-code help needed... *Update*
 

"Pete C." wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

With John's help I was able to get the two die halves milled nicely. My
initial tests with the AL flashing material showed tearing issues, so
I'll need to search for better material. I did have a scrap of 30ga galv
steel on hand so I gave that a try and it formed reasonably well without
tearing, so the basic die set seems to be workable.

G-code help needed... *Update*
 

On 4/30/2011 1:45 PM, Pete C. wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:

Does anyone who has 3D capable CAD/CAM have the ambition to generate
some G-code for me? What I need is two sets of code for a half egg
shape, a positive and a negative to use in a press. The egg would be
approximately 3.5" diameter by a suitable length perhaps ~4.5" or so.
The pos/neg die clearance should be .020". Post processor for Mach3.

Thanks,

Pete C.

With John's help I was able to get the two die halves milled nicely. My
initial tests with the AL flashing material showed tearing issues, so
I'll need to search for better material. I did have a scrap of 30ga galv
steel on hand so I gave that a try and it formed reasonably well without
tearing, so the basic die set seems to be workable.

I was wondering how your baking tin project went.