Hi, I’ve run an adaptive clearing tool path and some of the slopes are tiered with a 201 bit. I didn’t leave any stock. Any suggestions on how to smooth out the slopes? Ideally using a 201 bit. I could use 101 bit but would like to keep the machining time low.
Many thanks.
Difficult to say what the optimal finishing toolpath would be without seeing the piece geometry. But FWIW here’s an example of using a scallop toolpath with a 1/4" ballnose, that got me a smooth finish (not @Vince.Fab smooth, smooth enough for me to feel good)
201 is 1/4" flat (square end) bit, no?
To smooth the slopes with this bit, there are two options: step down the surface with a fine spacing using pretty much any strategy (contour or ramp being the most obvious), or use a strategy that moves in the direction of maximal slope with a moderate maximum stepover (about 1/4 the bit diameter or less)
For the fastest result, you want the bit to travel up and down the slope. This will leave small scallops like a ball end would. There is no operation specifically for this, so you may need to be creative, including putting reference axes to guide and locate operations, and using seperate operations on different surfaces. The parallel and radial operations are the two that come to mind here as able to do this-- most of the others either work constant-z or do not have a way to control tool travel–, but it does, as @Julien said, depend on the actual geometry.
If possible, I would just use a ball-end
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKCghOXcd1s from 5:45 to 6:30 for an example of the first method (just run fine stepdown). Actually, watch the whole video. And his others. His channel is a low-key CNC training course for the non-elementary jobs.
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