Community, I recently acquired 2 IDC Tapered Ball Nose bits (0.015 & 0.045 radius/w 10 degree taper). Most of what I read indicates these are good for 3D work, however, my initial interest was cutting small/medium size text. Anyone with experience / suggestions with these/similar bits and my intended early use? And yes…I have used various V bits as well as .125" end mills for text… Thanks in advance!
Tapered ballnose bits can work quite well for making text as they can carve in like a sharp pencil, but it depends on the style of text. CC does not handle tapered ballnose cutter geometry so you have to treat it as a V-bit - the problem being that as the carve goes deeper the angle from the tip to the cone diameter changes which is not like a V-bit with a constant angle. Depending on the text font, this may or may not work out. CC can generate a close approximation of what the text carving will look like if you make a pseudo-Vbit tool that approximates the TBM at the intended depth of the carve, but it’s a little different in real.
Thank you. I will probably experiment between CC and Easel with various fonts and see, may end up with an “out of the ordinary” look…
Try this sort of toolpath:
Note that the 3D preview will not be accurate, since Carbide Create does not allow entering this tool geometry.
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You cannot make a “correct” V-carve with a tapered ball end mill unless it has no sharp corners (in which case it pretty much becomes a regular pocket). You can make a V-carve that looks good enough, or is close enough, and maybe most people wouldn’t know.
You can use the tapered ball mill as a V-cutter in CC, I just wouldn’t use a separate pocketing cutter with it, because the floor radius might not blend well.
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Yup, I agree - it doesn’t make a correct V-carve. But with the fine pointed TBM’s the carving can look ‘sharp’ enough to appear like one. I’ve found that it works best if the V-carve isn’t too deep - the deeper the carve the more ‘rounded’ the characters.
The “error” comes from the ball vs. the sharp tip. The depth shouldn’t matter a lot; you’ll just get a fillet in the “valleys” of the V shape coming to the surface rather than a clean line.
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I have used a tapered ball nose bit for 3D work and it has worked pretty well as long as the depths of cut were fairly small. For shallow 3D work I would do it again. I am sure the taper cut a little extra wood but I doubt anyone would ever notice.
Tapered ball mills for 3D work are great when you’re using a small tip diameter, which would result in a weak cutter if it were a straight ball. We’ll probably add them to CC in the next revision that changes the file format.
Until then, you can program the part as if you’ve got a straight ball. That will potentially lead to a slight overcut from the taper, compared to potentially a slight undercut if it were programmed as a tapered ball. (Those conditions both depend on the exact file being cut) Neither case is generally a problem for the types of low-relief projects people typically cut on a CNC router.
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