I have about 70 pieces to make this month with a .118 (3mm) wide slot .060" deep in some D2 annealed tool steel. The slot is .825" long and has a Tee cross at one end that is also .118 wide and measures .318 across the points of the Tee.

I'm currently using a 3/32 stub length carbide 4 flute endmill by OSG, and it works pretty well. I start at one end, ramping down X+0.700 and Z-0.015. then back to X0 at Z-0.030. Then I comp over and machine to finish size. I return to the start and do the same exact sequence again only down from Z-0.03 to Z-0.06 deep. I'm at home now so I don't remember the speeds right now but I'm looking for new methods now. The slot is fully enclosed in the part so there is no easy way to enter it.

I reckon I could pre-drill one end of the slot, then trochoidal mill the full slot width and depth, or just spiral ramp down to full depth rather than pre-drill so I can eliminate a tool change.

If you had that small slot in that wear resistant tool steel, how would you guys do it? Any fantastic tool I should consider that just eats up tool steel? I make about 100 of these a year and have for the last 3 years, so I really want a good, dependable and breakage free method to do this if possible so that I can let one machine run 2 or 4 parts while running another. The part is well secured .375" deep in jaws, is only 1.339 wide and about 1.80 long so it is very stable. I'm using a Fadal VMC 3016 box way machine with 10,000 spindle and holding the tool in an ER16 collet.

Anyway, take a look and if you have some great ideas, I would love to hear them and get some input from you guys.
PS, I'm using FreeForm SC.

Thank
Jon

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