Machining Pocket Screws

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Rob Davis
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Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Rob Davis »

All,
Tried our first pocket screw joinery on a small test cabinet. It did not make the pockets. It drilled the 1/8" hole for the step and it drilled, retracted to above the surface and then angled out to what should have been a pocket but it was in space above the sheet. It never made the actual pocket in the material or in air above the sheet. It did drill the spot for the screw on the mating piece. So I know it is trying!
Do I need to have certain settings checked to make these? For example, I only have the 5mm and 1/8" bits set to drill, not rout/dado or pocket. As I am certain it is something on my end, can anyone help me to understand if I have not set up tooling properly or if there is some check box I am missing? I am using CN 5-78.
Thanks for the help. We think this is a great feature and are really looking forward to using this on our products!
Forrest Chapman
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Re: Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Forrest Chapman »

Make sure you name the 3/8" tool "pocketscrew" and set for route/dado. It doesn't even have to be .375" either although I would recommend a tool close in size.

Forrest
Rob Davis
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Re: Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Rob Davis »

Forrest,
Thanks for the reply. We outline with a 3/8 tool so I set up a second 3/8 tool to do the pocketscrew. I have it checked for rout/dado, drill, interpolate, and pocket. I think I did as told by going to Operation List in CN and there is the option to name a tool operation and I entered "pocketscrew" for this second 3/8 cutter only. Ran program and still no pocketscrew holes. Pockets show on the "Nest X" output visual but do not show on the .jpg after writing CNC file. I am sure it is something I am doing or not set. I have made an export file for THM for Monday to see what I can do to fix this. I am dying to try one of these!!!!
Rob Davis
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Re: Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Rob Davis »

Forrest, maybe stupid question but do I need to include the quotation marks on the name "pocketscrew"?
Forrest Chapman
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Re: Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Forrest Chapman »

Short answer, no.

Forrest
Scott G Vaal
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Re: Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Scott G Vaal »

Rob,

I assume you have also defined an operation tool named pocketscrewdrill (screw shelf drill only) or pocketscrewdrills (screw shelf drill and cleans corners with same tool)?? If you already do, then make sure that the 1/8" or 5mm router bit used/defined as the pocketscrewdrill(s) is set to rout/dado and see if that makes it work.
Regards,

Scott Vaal
-Thermwood/eCabinet Systems-
Dell Precision / Xeon E3-1240 / 8GB RAM /NVIDIA Quadro K2000
Rob Davis
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Re: Machining Pocket Screws

Post by Rob Davis »

Solution: Scott was most helpful as always. My error was I did not read the manual for this new feature. I needed to name tools for this and when I did, success. Go to Thermwood/software manuals/control nesting and then look up "pocketscrew" and it will guide you through it. It is not overly detailed but should do it. We did create a new tool operation for each of 2 tools for these. We also kept the operations early on in the list.
Rob
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