Filleted End Mills
I finally got the new code for filleted end mills working. I tried a number of ways to solve the line/torus intersection problem including one from an academic paper that seemed to just not work. I had hoped to solve the equations analytically but the math becomes unwieldy and round off errors due to floating point calculations make an iterative solution more accurate anyway. Below you can see an example of all of the work. It doesn’t look much different from a current toolpath and that’s a good thing. One difference though- this one takes every triangle in to account at each step. The current zmap-based approach can miss tiny features that fall between sampling points.
I just need to test the tapered filleted end mill and then I can move on to integrating it into the new finishing toolpath code.
Comments
4 Responses to “Filleted End Mills”
Wow, Robert, I’m gonna need to buy a tapered bullnose mill and use it just to honor the work you’re doing!
Or at least a parallel bullnose mill–I can use that for roughing too… I’d take my hat off to you, except that then I’d get a sunburn on my balding pate!
I just wanted you to know that someone is reading this blog–I only check it twice a day or so…
Looking forward to playing with the new release when it’s released!
Best regards,
Randy
I can’t say that I’ve ever had anyone request tapered bullnose support but I figured that everything should support a taper to be consistent. I’ve been using tapered ball cutters for a while now because you can get a long flute with a lot of strength. The strength is important because you never want to break one- they cost a ton.
I can see how the tapered mills would be great for casting patterns etc. that have draft on the vertical surfaces anyway.
But are you talking about a tapered ballnose vs. a parallel ballnose? I can see how that would add strength if you don’t have any vertical walls to machine up against too. What are you machining where a tapered ball is an advantage?
Randy
Yes, I use a tapered ball most of the time I run a MeshCAM toolpath. I usually do stuff where I need a long flute, maybe 1.5-3″ but with a .0625 - .125″ ball, so the extra material from the taper is helpful. I could program a very conservative toolpath that would stress the tool less but who wants to wait for that to run. The materials are usually a soft wood or high density foams like Renshape for patterns. The draft is a nice side effect if I need to make a silicone mold but usually not required.