Hello all,
Been in CNC’ing for about 2 years now, and long time watcher of Titan, but new to the forums.
Quick question for this awesome community… which is better: to use end mills to machine depth or use insert cutters to machine width?
I was watching a Titans of CNC video (I can’t find it now), but Titan was machining a part that had a “U-Shape”, and he cut it in 2 passes, gave his classic “Boom! Machined in 2 passes” and then called that type of machining something along the lines of “Phalanx Machining” (or something like that - I’m thinking back several months).
Right now, I’m tooled up with insert cutters from 2" down to .5" and then I switch over to ball noses for finishing. But now I’m thinking about retooling to end mills. Is there a difference performance / time wise between cutting 2" wide and .100 deep with an insert cutter, or cutting 2" deep and .100 wide with an endmill?
Any help would be great! And if, by some small chance, anyone knows the video I’m talking about, that would help too!
Thanks!!
Was the part U-Shape or was the tool path U-Shape?
There can be a lot of answers to your question base on what you are exactly doing in your machining process.
A couple of examples would be 2" wide by .100" deep would be more on the line of Face Milling and 2"in. deep by .100 wide would be more on the line of Side Milling. Then you have the tool maker recommendations for the tool to be use. Example S.F.M., I.P.T., D.O.C., N.O.T. then are you roughing the part or finishing the part ect. ect.
Based on a lot of what I may have done or actually watched videos on it is based mostly on material removal rate and based on your examples the removal rate would be the same unless the speeds and feeds are different between the two examples. Hope this is helpful in answering your question. Look through Titan’s building block series that maybe the video you watched. Good Luck!
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When roughing use a bigger tool I hammer away with a 1/2 end mill. Depending on how I have to setup the piece or how much I can hold onto I go from 0.25 - 1.0 deep with 0.03 - 0.125 step over. Mostly because I don’t get a lot of huge or tall parts.