My first climb milling

[alexccmeister]

Hi All,

Did my first climb milling with my cnc X2 and I have to say, the finish between conventional milling and climb milling is like night and day. The circle on the right is the result of climb milling while the smaller circle on the left is conventional milling.

I will rough cut with conventional milling and finish off with climb milling. Sounds ok?

Alex

[Karl_T]

That's a good plan for a lighter machine like yours. If you take too much cut climb milling on a light machine the tool will grab and pull into the work.

[alexccmeister]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that the metal I was cutting is steel. Not sure what grade but its softer than normal steel I guess. My next task is to make a fly cutter out of steel. I got a stock material which is already turned down to the correct size. I just need to cut the groove for the cutting tool to sit in. Exciting stuff. Will post pics once done. Hope to do it tomorrow (Sunday).

Alex

[BobWarfield]

Alex, when you cut that tool groove, try not to do the width in one pass. If you can, make a pass down the middle, and then do either side. You'll get a finer finish and a more accurate cut that way. Seems like a good thing for a piece of tooling.

Cheers!

BW

[alexccmeister]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the advice. I was wondering whether to cut one width or use a smaller tool to cut in several passes. You have answered that for me. Thanks.

Alex

[SScnc]

That looks good Alex. I found out the difference when I first got my X2 and started cutting slots into parts. You wouldn't think it would make that much difference from conventional milling.

[alexccmeister]

Hi SScnc,

Yup! I wouldn't believe it if I didn't try it myself.

Anyway, finally made a flycutter. Did some facing work after that. Cut sample is attached.

I think my table is not trammed properly cos when I was doing the facing, the back part of the fly cutter swing is cutting into the work piece as well. That shouldn't happen right?

Thanks.

Alex

[sansbury]

With the bit hung that far past the holder you are probably going to see some tool flex regardless of tram. If you have a surface plate you could indicate the workpiece and see how flat it is.

[cadmonkey]

Originally Posted by sansbury With the bit hung that far past the holder you are probably going to see some tool flex regardless of tram.

I can confirm that is the case with a brazed carbide tipped tool. When I tuck the tip as tight as I can to the body of the flycutter I get less flex, but still you are correct - it could indicate some degree of tram issue.

[alexccmeister]

Thanks guys. Will tram the table again today and see what happens. Will adjust the tool tip as well.

Alex

[BobWarfield]

Looks like classic out-of-tram flycutting to me.

Here's a piece of cast iron cut with the head properly trammed:



Needs a little less depth of cut, and possibly a quick hone on the cutter, but you can see that both sides are cutting. Now here is the same cast iron with a different fly cut and the head slightly out of tram:



BTW, it doesn't take much to knock the head out of tram. Sometimes even flycutting with a big diameter on the cutter and an interrupted cut is all it takes.

Cheers,

BW

[alexccmeister]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the analysis above. I had a look at your website and I am interested to know what metal you were cutting using the TPGB Insert Dovetail Cutter. Can you cut steel with it?

Alex

P.S. looks like the out of tram flycutting looked much better than the trammed one. Probably won't get the accuracy though.