Hey all,
I suddenly find myself with more time on my hands (state of the economy) and I’m thinking about taking the plunge and getting the pro version of the Carbide Create software to do some 3D carving. Before I start my free trial I wanted to ask about the end mills people use. I have the standard set with the 1/4 and 1/8 inch square and the 60 degree V bit. I have some others but those 3 I use for 95% of projects.
I have seen some youtube vids of people using those really pretty blue spektra bits like this with a 6 degree point on their Shapeoko. Is something like that necessary to get nice detail or can I get started with what I have?
Also, is there a spectra library for the shapeoko?
From what I know ball end mills are a staple of 3D carving. I don’t have experience though. I am also wondering the same as that’s something I would like to get into as well.
Don’t consider me an expert on 3D carving, but you’ll want to get some ball endmills to do your detail 3D pass. Rough 3D machining can be done with a standard square bottom mill. I have the tapered ball end mills like the one you posted (mine are SpeTool so they’re more affordable), but Carbide Create does not have the functionality to model the tapered geometry of the tool. You just have to tell it you’re using a ball end mill of XX diameter and make sure you’re not milling anything with a wall angle that would get hit by the tapered portion of the endmill.
I have that 1/32" tapered ball end - it’s a really great bit for carving. With a 0.125-0.2mm stepover, you can raster it across a 3D carve as fast as you feel safe with your machine while maintaining a lot of detail & a nice surface finish.
This is true…whenever I’m using CC & a tapered ball end, I use a ‘specially calculated’ V bit or an approx. sized straight ball end as a substitute for the modeling.
I also have MeshCam which is able to run the calculations utilizing a tapered ball end - so sometimes I’ll model in CC, export a STL, then import into MeshCam to do the toolpaths & see what the rendered model looks like.
If people are comfortable sharing, could I also request some links to the end mills (sounds like ball endmill is the way to go for the finishing pass) that people use. I would love to economize (i.e. not spend too much) to get started.
I got a few of the end mills The Woodworker suggested. I was hoping I could get a bit of feeds and speeds feedback. I have not done any 3d carving yet and just added the bit to carbide create as a engravers tool with an end diameter of 0.029 in. (the tip is .75 MM converted to inches). If there is a better way to add I am open. I know TheWoodworker suggested an endmill but I was weary of the potential wall issue nd an engraver I can input the angle.
Any suggestions on depth and speeds? I wont hold anyone responsible if the bit breaks (i bought a set of 4 in anticipation of breaking a few). I just dont want to spend 12 hours on a 4 inch carving.
I have found that, after doing a roughing pass with a 1/4" or 1/8" flat/ball mill, a fine pointed tapered ball mill can usually be rasterized as fast as you are comfortable with letting your machine go as long as your step-over is very small - less than 0.5mm. The amount of material being engaged by the tapered ball mill is then so small per pass that you can max out your movement speed up to the point where you may start getting other motion artifacts or surface finish issues. The key is for the tapered ball mill to start off slower to initially ‘dig in’ to the carve, once the first few rasterization passes are made, then the speed can be ramped up.
