Originally Posted by
Thorpydo
Hey,
I'm making a two part mold with some surfacing. It's the most complicated part I've made so far and am a bit over my head.
First the background:
I've setup a rough surfacing feature and a fine surfacing feature in mastercam for a 3/8" carbide ball end mill. I will follow with a fine surfacing feature with a 1/8" ball end mill. The surfacing path that I'm using is parallel. The rough feature leave .1" to the surface, the 3/8" fine leaves .02" and the 1/8" fine takes off that last bit.
The problem I'm facing is this:
During the 3/8" fine cut, it's taking off .08 down, but also .08 at the edges, and these edges can be a half inch deep. The machine doesn't like that and I have to slow the feed rate way way way down to make it even manageable.
If I was doing this over, I probably would have 3/8" roughed to .03, then 3/8" fine to .015, then 1/8" fine to the surface.
But I'd like to hear from you guys, what would you recommend? I've looked at the contour surfacing path in hopes that if it starts from the top, then I'm only ever taking a little bit off. . . but that doesn't look to be the case and the path is pretty funky.
Would you guys recommend roughing with a flat endmill instead? The ball doesn't seem to cut as well (my guess would be because towards the center doesn't rotate as fast as the outside)
Thanks!
Aam