Surfacing Aluminum without plunging?

[ScottsdaleSteve (Steve)]

I have a 4"x4" block of aluminum (1 inch thick) that I want to mill down to 1/2 inch thick. I’ll take it down perhaps .015" per pass. Using a pocketing operation in Carbide Create, it wants to start in the middle, meaning it will plunge on every pass (34 passes, 34 plunges).

In Carbide Create, is there a way to do this from the outside-in to avoid the stress of plunging into the center on every pass? I have Carbide Create Pro if that matters.

[Radiation (Josh)]

I think you could use a 3d finishing pass if you make the model in the model section. That would be similar to a parallel pass

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Why? Get a bandsaw and cut it not quite in half, then face off the thicker half.

[ScottsdaleSteve (Steve)]

Please humor me if it can be done outside-in with Carbide Create, as I don’t have a bandsaw nor access to one.

[David.Curtis]

Ok, I’ll humour you.

I set this up in carbide create, ran it through camotics and unless i’m missing a fundamental, it will work.

1. Set up my grid for 5x5 (just larger than your stock for safety)
2. Set grid spacing to 0.125" (50% stepover for .250" endmill)
3. Started on the outside and used the line tool to play the old TI-83 worm game(this is the humour part of my post), working my way to the center.
4. Simple contour toolpath.

tester1.c2d (29.7 KB)
tester1.nc (19.8 KB)

[ScottsdaleSteve (Steve)]

David - Clever solution! I’ll give that a try. Thank you.