Anilam 3300 help needed

[Troy Fab]

Anyone familiar with anilam 3300 system. I am trying to create a bowl on the surface of a piece and can not figure it out. Planning on using 1" round endmill to make a 5" circle 1"deep x 6" radius z axis.

[Gary Armitstead]

Troy,
I am a retired die sinker (made forging dies in my "other" life). I'm trying to grasp in my mind of your description of "creating a bowl". A couple of questions, 1) Are you trying to make a bowl or a dome (i.e. a cavity or a standing dome? 2) Describe the 6 inch radius z axis.

I drew your part as I understood it, in MasterCam. I am NOT familiar with the Anilam system, but as far as trying to machine it in a mill, I would do a circular toolpath and step down a certain amount to keep the scallops of the cut as small as possible. Is your mill capable of only 2-1/2 axis or a true 3 axis machine? I assume you are talking about a 1 inch diameter "ball cutter". If I have totally missed what you are talking about from your description, just disregard and I'll crawl back under my tool box.

[Troy Fab]

Gary, I am so happy someone responded. I am trying to make a cavity with a 6 " radius or arc. ( bottom of bowl), ( it will be 1" deep in center.) If you went straight up 6" from the center , arc would pivot from there. Ball endmill is correct. I am using a cnc bridgeport for this.
I was hoping to do this from a pocket menu but it does not seem to have this.
If I was to try it from circular tool path is there a formula for each step over and step down.
Example: 5.5 circle .125 deep, then 5. Circle .150, then 4.5 circle .200 deep etc..

I apologize for my lack of a quality description, of what I am trying to do.

[Gary Armitstead]

Gary, I am so happy someone responded. I am trying to make a cavity with a 6 " radius or arc. ( bottom of bowl), ( it will be 1" deep in center.) If you went straight up 6" from the center , arc would pivot from there. Ball endmill is correct. I am using a cnc bridgeport for this.
I was hoping to do this from a pocket menu but it does not seem to have this.
If I was to try it from circular tool path is there a formula for each step over and step down.
Example: 5.5 circle .125 deep, then 5. Circle .150, then 4.5 circle .200 deep etc..

I apologize for my lack of a quality description, of what I am trying to do.

No apologizes needed. I pretty much understood what you were asking. The dimension that confused me was the 5" radius. In the MasterCam drawing I made, I just drew a vertical center 6 inches long and started at the Z -1" mark. Drew a 6 inch radius from the top of the 6 inch line and drew a 6 inch radius arc. The diameter of the bowl at the top will be whatever it is at the flat surface. I DO have a couple of toolpaths in MasterCam that could be used, but trying to inject this into a program you could use in Anilam could be a hassle. I can send you some coordinates for a toolpath to use what's available in your Bridgeport controller. Just depends on how fine you want the scallop heights to be. For one thing, what is the material you are cutting? Whatever the scallops will be, you are going to have to do some "benching" to get a nice finish. Send me a PM through this site with your contact email and we can deal with this off site.