cnc machining

[cerberus]

hi

i am new to the whole boat industry. i come from an cnc routing background with a 3 axis machine (multicam). had alot of fun with that machine now i am moving onto a 5 axis machine. i am totally new to the 5 axis scene and i wanted to know what literature a person can look at that is on the net, what software is generally used and what is a good place to start for general boat jargen and info.

i had a look on the net but all i can find is sales pitches and no real information.
i have worked with rhino and visual mill. from what i can see visual mill can only do 4th axis milling and not 5. even though on their site they say they do. what is the differance between 4 axis and 5 axis milling

all help is appreciated

thanks

[Karsten]

In general I don't think there is much CNC work done in the boat industry. There are a few places that could CNC cut a whole hull plug. Nautor Swan and DK Yachts are examples. Most common is probably your 3 axis machine to cut interior panels.

A 4 axis machine can move the spindle in the x, y and z direction and the spindle itself rotates around one of the axis. That makes 4 in total. A 5 axis machine must be able to rotate the spindle around a further axis. To place the cutter tangent to a 3D surface you would need a 6 axis machine.

[Splint]

Hi Cerberus,
have a look on www.cnczone.com and search through the archives, also have a look at http://www.rainnea.com/cnc for some general information on 5 axis machining.
Also you need to be aware that 5 axis cam software is quiet expensive, I think it starts at around the US$18,000 (mastercam, surfcam, vx cadcam, worknc to name a few) or if you want to save some money you can go for 3+2 which means 3 axies are dynamically opperated and the other two are positional (onecnc, visualmill etc.) this software I think is around the US$12,000 and many software packages have annual maintanece on top of the initial purchase price.
The rainnea site has a freeware 5 axis script which runs in GMax (also freeware) and 3DS Max (not free), I've had a play with this script and it seems to work ok.

Cheers
Splint

[Raggi_Thor]

Originally Posted by Karsten

... A 5 axis machine must be able to rotate the spindle around a further axis. To place the cutter tangent to a 3D surface you would need a 6 axis machine.

I don't think you ned more than five :-)
The cutter is rotating around the sixth.

A new company in Norway are now making molds or plugs up to 27 meters long, I think.

[sailfastaz]

Just surfing away tonight. I don't know if your looking for technical info but the current issue of proffesional boat builder has a little blurb I think about Ferreti using a new five axis machine. www.proboat.com

I remember reading a few years back that some companies where using cnc routers to cut their plugs for molds on smaller production powerboats and the larger guys were using it to cut larger componets fly bridge pieces etc...

have fun

John