Any reason I can’t use a tapered ball end mill to do the profile cuts on this? Obviously, the straight sided mill didn’t erase all the finishing pass tool marks which used that tapered bit. I don’t want to bite into the model too much more, but thinking the taper set to cut just below the surface of the model might just be the trick - it would give the side a slight chamfer.
Nope…in fact it’s probably a great idea. I almost never use small ball end mills anymore, now that I have a nice collection of tapered end mills (0.010, 0.015, 0.020, 0,040 radius ends (usually at a 3.5 degree angle) from 1/8 to 1/4" shanks. I ignore the angle for wood work since Carbide Create can’t model these cutters (yet). They are SO much stronger than a tiny little ball (end) mill.
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I would just watch the engagement of that tapered endmill if you do a full-depth contouring op. Depending on the angle of the taper, the tool engagement at the top of the stock might be a little bit too much to chew. If you don’t want to take any chances, maybe set depth per pass to half the stock thickness so that it goes at it in two passes. Ideally, do a test cut for that scenario on some scrap of that wood, you don’t want to mess up a 10+ hours job during that final clean-up.
And then again as @RichCournoyer said, those tapered endmills are strong.
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been there, done that
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Thanks, this gives me an idea. I’ll create a few inside offset toolpaths and sneak up on the cut I want.
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That’s been my experience as well. I’ll create some inside offset paths and get a profile I like.
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