Having trouble with a very special slot

[davidpolowczyk]

Hello, This is my first time actually using this forum. I have a interesting part i have to make, the slot you see has a radius on the bottom and is concave, what tool path should i use to rough and finish it since it has varying z depths. I have 2 different  endmills to use, a 3/16 ball mill and a 3/16 bullnose endmill with a .02 radius on it

[seth.madore · Accepted solution]

Well, if it needs to be "true to form", you really need to finish the walls and the floor with a .040" ball endmill. Using a Bull endmill with .02" radius will leave gouges in the floor, as it's going to cut a flat and scallop as it traverses thru the part. 

I'd use Scallop and Ramp, predominantly. 

 

[davidpolowczyk]

Thank you for the help! I started tinkering with the tool paths and its not necessarily working to my favor like you're model is looking. Can you show me how the geometry tab looks?

[davidpolowczyk]

i forgot to mention that i received 0.03R bullnose endmill for this job

[seth.madore]

Any bullnose endmill is going to do a poor job of finishing the floor, it needs to be a ball endmill. Now, that doesn't mean you need to finish the entire slot with an .04" ball endmill, you can use a larger tool, such as a .125" ball endmill and then come in and pick out the corners with the .04"

[davidpolowczyk]

Thats what ill use to do the floor, i have a 3 flute ball endmill.