Question about Finishing strategy

1

Hello,
I would appreciate your opinion about the following.

I am thinking of running 2 finishing passes:

  1. Rough Finish Pass: Using a ‘down cutter’ (the 1/4" one used for the roughing pass). Reason for this is to achieve some 90 degree angles on specific routings. I am using VCarve Desktop and I can’t select vectors for specific areas with 90 degree angles.

  2. Fine Finish Pass: Using a 1/8" ball.

What do you think about this finishing approach?

Thank you!

Pablo

2

What are you cutting? It’s hard to recommend a strategy with no idea of what the part is, what material, what you’re trying to achieve…

3

I am cutting a curved top design on a piece of poplar

4

I don’t know what version you have of V-Carve desktop. I use Aspire 11. My strategy on peice like that is a .25 ball nose and a .5 or 1 mm tapered ball nose after the .25 end mill roughing pass, on which I leave.005 for the ballnose. I set the ball nose at a 45 degree raster at 8% stepover. This strategy eliminates most sanding, and with rest machining lowers carve times.

5

Charles, so using a downcut bit for a finish pass is not a good idea?

6

Can you share the vector or a similar example? Seems like solving that problem would make this easier.

7

I cant. But imagine a wooden, rectangular stock. Then you carve a 3d half sphere over it and around the half sphere, a ‘ring’ or ‘channel’ whose walls have a 90’degree angle.

8

Like this?

image
image865×285 30.1 KB

Couldn’t you just create a separate vector to generate a pocket? Or profile, depending on need?

9

I would opt for a ball mill for finishing. If I understand, you’re carving a 2d+ relief, maybe a dome of some kind, concave or convex. The ball mills will usually offer a cleaner finish.

10

What you need to use in Vcarve Desktop is the Moulding Toolpath. It will create that dome for you. Then you run a profile or pocket toolpath to get that groove.

Ask you question on the Vectric forum, too. https://forum.vectric.com/

11

Thank you very much!

12

Thank you everyone.

The question I have is, can I use a downbit to perform a FINISH pass, instead of a ball end?

Which are the pros and cons?

13

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