I'm looking for best practices to pocket out a shaker cabinet door

[RedMonkeyMakers]

I'm creating simple shaker cabinet doors and I'm struggling with what would be the best way to cam so that it leaves the cleanest finish.

My first thought was use a 1 1/8" surfacing bit to hog out the large pocket area leaving .5mm radial stock

I could then come back with 1/8" endmill and clean up the corners and the edges of the pocket.

I'm really struggling to figure out how to do that though.  When I create a pocket toolpath for each of the bits, the 1/8" bit goes over everything again.  

I've attached the file.  Anyone have a better approach to get a clean solution?  I'm pretty new to all this.

[matty.fuller]

What you want is straightforward, the second operation to clean up the wall should be a 2D Contour, as attached.

That said, the 1/8" tool you've defined isn't long enough for the job, you'll see in the simulation that the shank collides with the part. You'll need a longer tool to machine this part, or use T1 and accept a larger fillet in the corner that you clean up with a chisel.

[RedMonkeyMakers]

OK I updated the depth in the example so that my bits don't collide.  The profile toolpath works but it leaves some bits...

See attached updated file: 

[matty.fuller · Accepted solution]

That'll be because the difference between the two tools is quite large. You can easily remove that material by adding roughing passes to the 2D Contour, but it will spend a fair amount of time cutting air.

The more efficient (in terms of machine time) approach would be to use Adaptive Clearing with Rest Machining - From Previous Operations turned on, so it just clears what's left after the pocketing operation. I've set that up in the file for you to take a look, with quite conservative tool engagement.

[RedMonkeyMakers]

Thanks for that. This helps very much. I wasn't aware of 'Rest Machining'. I'll have to do some research on the topic. Really appreciate the help.

[programming2C78B]

Just fyi but you can also do this particular one inside of 2D contour. It does REST machining off a theoretical tool dia without calculating actual stock from a mesh. Set it slightly larger then your face mill and it'll mill out just to corners 

[RedMonkeyMakers]

I see that you can set the tool dia on the REST settings for contour as well. This forum is fantastic and I'm very thankful.

[matty.fuller]

Nice tip, I wasn't aware of that.