This page will be devoted to trying to make the Mastercam Handbook Volume 2 better by providing specific suggestions on where it needs to be improved.
I feel the biggest problem with the Mastercam Handbook Volume 2 is the concept of showing a reader how only one type of surfacing toolpath works at a time for most of the book and thinking this is good enough to teach someone how to program and machine parts that need surfacing toolpath.
In my opinion, dividing surface Roughing and surface Finishing toolpaths into separate sections is a bad idea and really frustrates the reader who wants to understand and see a complete approach. Despite this problem, Charles Davis’s second book is far better than his first and he makes up for some of what I see as a problem when he finally gets into surface Finish machining toolpaths. The Mastercam Handbook Volume 2 is an excellent effort by Charles Davis and is to me very impressive where as his first book, Mastercam Handbook Volume 1, doesn’t impress me very much at all. It’s almost like Charles Davis was bored with the subject matter for the Mastercam Handbook Volume 1.
There is currently an effort by Derek Goodwin of http://www.eapprentice.net to compliment Charles Davis’s books with video. While not perfect and still missing important details Derek’s videos certainly help and move the Mastercam Handbook Volume 2 forward toward being more complete.
No one has done what Charles Davis has done to create Mastercam surfacing written documentation that is easy to understand and easy to use and he deserves a lot of credit for his efforts with Mastercam Handbook Volume 2.
Note: Charles Davis no longer sells Mastercam and has moved on to what he feels is a much better approach to CADCAM.
