Finish direction on a surface

[dareman]

I just wanted to check with the "crew" here and see what your preferences are when finishing a sloped surface. Would you rather finish from top to bottom or from bottom to top? What are advantages and disadvantages of either? I'm cutting a 45 deg ramp in 7075 with a 3/32 ball if that makes a difference to the way you would approach this. I've always gone from top to bottom but don’t have any real reason for it, just seems like the right thing to do for me I guess.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on this.

Derick

[crazy^millman]

Gravity would be my biggest reason. Chips seem to do better falling down a surface than falling up and if you start at the bottom you run the risk of double cutting your chips, where as with your current approach you have less of a chance of that happening. This is where Horizontals become a great asset to manufacturing they help to take gravity out of the equation with regards to chips.

 

HTH

[Gary]

cutting champfers ect with a ball em starting at the bottom works good because the tip of the ball doesn't bury itself and load up.