Can you use Mcfly to pocket?

Just a curious question. Can McFly be used to pocket a very large area with little to no curves? Depth would be no more than 2-3mm.

If so what would be a good DOC and feed speed?

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Yes, you can use McFly to pocket, but I wouldn’t suggest using it. Too slow. It’s best for surfacing, since you typically do only one pass, two max.

McFly is pretty big, and therefore, you will need to take a shallower DOC. Whereas with a .25 EM, you can do the entire 3mm in one pass.

Can you push the McFly, sure you can, but it’s really designed for surfacing, not pocketing. Besides, you will end up with some areas that are missed since the diameter is 1".




Missed the corners due to bit diameter.

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@edbucsjr

Yes, you can but I would not. As Anthony pointed out it’s faster to use smaller diameter bits, then follow up with a finishing pass with the McFly if you wanted. I only use it for surfacing operations with shallow DOC’s.

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Are these conditions also applicable to hardwoods like walnut?

I echo, that you can, but you shouldn’t. :slight_smile:

It seems counter-intuitive, but material removal rate has 3 factors and a big bit is only good for 1 of them:

Depth of cut: A big surfacing bit has to have shallow passes. Smaller endmills can go much deeper in each pass.

Stepover: This is the one factor a surfacing bit will be better as it can do larger stepovers, but the other 2 factors negate this.

Feed Rate: The smaller endmills can push faster with more depth.

So since the smaller emdmills like 1/4" and 3/8" can cut deeper and feed much faster at those depths, they will ultimately win.

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