Shapeoko vs. Aluminum round 2, why don't HSM best practices work?

Adaptive toolpaths are not finishing paths, they are reserved for roughing only and will almost always leave sidewall marks. However it looks like you have a decent amount of deflection going on.

If you are running a stock Z, it takes a bit of finesse to cam out good paths. The more axial engagement of the cutter you have, the more pull/push and endmill will have. If a conventional style low doc cut gives you more MRR and better finishes then stick with that. We don’t cut that much material to make wear over flutes a huge deal. I think when I ran a stock Z my usual axial doc was around 0.125" but ran a much higher opt load. Beware going too low on the opt as well, chip shape and thickness go hand in hand with heat management. Ideally you’ll want a nice shiny defined chip, increase opt if chip is feathered.

Stick with the single flute as it will be much less effected by runnout compared to multi flute cutters and also take less tq to run.

Runnout can be adjusted but imo 0.002 isn’t too bad and should run fine on a 1/4 cutter. Its said 0.0005 is good to shoot for but I never check runnout unless using smaller than 1/8 cutters.

You can always start will low axial and high radial adaptive settings and work from there slowly. Also Fusion does not calculate chip thinning so please take that into consideration.

Using a speeds feeds force calculator like the @gmack let you adjust docs while seeing the machine forces and router power used.

Imo running 30krpm isn’t ideal when proving out cutting and rpm is directly related to tool life. A single flute can take a decent chipload and sometimes going slower and making a bigger chip will stabilize the cut due to the loads.

9 Likes