Just wanted to share a project. I made this while hosting a garage sale. I went running when I heard the carbide hit the clamp, but it was fine. It doesn’t matter how long you have been machining, humans make mistakes. Anyway I attempted to use Carbide Create for the first time since about the inception hearing new texture and V carving was a thing. Here is an image of the texture carved.
So my question to everyone, is there some designated settings to achieve certain patterns? Like x min/max to achieve Y pattern.
Another item I ran into was using the default settings in Carbide Create for a .125" this thing was going to take forever. I bumped the feedrate up to 200% in bCNC and it ran fine. It still took a little over 3 hours and could have easily bumped the feedrate. Another thing I noticed was the unneeded amount of linking moves. So the cutter goes to retract height, then to cut, and back to full retract before next cut. Is there a reason the cutter can not just continue while still in the same pocket? The extra linking moves drastically increases machining time.
Ideally the endmill will have all heat carried away during cutting — lifting allows it to cool if that’s not happening, it also allows for chip clearing.
I thought the idea was the chip carried the heat away not the endmill.
Edit: thermodynamics tells us the rate of heat transfer is directly related to the gradient between the two mediums. A cooler endmill would transfer more heat away faster.
That’s the idea…
if you get feeds and speeds correct
if you clear chips fast enough, and aren’t recutting them (alum. work hardens)
if the right endmill is being used (with the right coatings)
if you’re using the right lubrication for a given material
if it’s a metal, if it’s cutting cleanly and the cutter is razor sharp (carbide is not as sharp as HSS, but makes up for it with a bunch of other characteristics)
The end result being…the endmill can still get hot. It’s better cool.
