New to Machining

[xxsuperbirdxx]

I'm new to machining a year ago my company bought a new DMS 5 axis router and told me to learn how to use it. So I went to the 3 day mastercam training and a few more other classes at my mastercam dealer. So long story short I am getting pretty good at programming and I have cut many thermoforming molds out of MB-2000 and MB-3500 tooling board. What i really struggle with is feeds and speeds and also step down and step over. I feel like I'm not being efficient enough in my programming and most of the time I use a .500 2 flute ball endmill to do the roughing and normally my step over is .125 and the stepdown is .120 @ 300 ipm and I think I could go deeper. Any thoughts? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

P.S. My machine is a DMS 5 axis router with 2 5x5 tables the spindle is a HSD ES 929 12hp 

[#Rekd™]

One easy solution is to contact the manufacturer of the end mill/ cutter, most reputable companies have excellent technical support.