Well, thanks to a number of people sending me information about my MC X post problem, I'm finally up and running. Thank you to all, for the outreach of assistance.
Now I'm up to making my first contoured parts. It's my first experience with ball-milling and I'm having some problems. I'm getting a grip on what the various options are in the dialogs but I'm still having problems with the edges of the surface.
Attached are two images. The part was designed in Catia V5. The 3D contoured area is the top of the ribs (seen in the finished part). I was able to get an export of the uncut upper surface from Catia (without the pocket holes).
Using that surface, I did a roughing operation that left about 0.040 on the part. After that, it was a circular finishing operation with 0.001" tolerances. I used a 3/4", 2 flute ball mill for all of this.
The problem can be seen on the edges of the surface (perimeter and at the top of the cone). I had to go into Advanced Settings and change the surface edge action to "Only between surfaces" to keep it from rolling over the edges. Now it looks like it's not quite making it to the edge at all.
With the defaults, the endmill would wrap over the edges. The result is that the mill would cut into the pocket at the top (which I didn't want) and off the outer edges (which would run into the vise).
What options should I have used so the ball mill cuts right to the edge, without plunging below the surface edges? If you look at the finished surface you can see the rough surface left at both boundaries.
BTW: I'm using MC X
Thanks in advance