Milling profile radius discussion

[tkoden]

I am an engineer working on improving the manufacturability and producibility of the products my company makes. I got into a long discussion with my boss about the radii inside pockets and on internal corners the outside of a part. I have always modeled parts with radii 15% larger than the expected cutter i.e. .500 EM would have a .25*1.15 or .2875 radius drawn in the model. Is this something that you see a lot in industry or am I the only one that does this? Is it worth the effort to model this way?

[mactec54]

tkoden

Your thinking & modeling is correct, but you don't have to use quite that much.002 to.010 is enough for the cutter to go around the corner but more is ok to, if your design is ok with a larger radius then do it the way you are, if your boss want's tight corners then you will have to use a smaller percentage, an Outside radius does not need to change only if you want to maintain a wall thickness, Like inside radius .260 wall thickness .125 outside radius would be .385