I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why this wasn't the first and only suggestion.

I feel your pain. I was in the same boat a couple months ago. My only CNC lathe experience was hearing one run on the other side of the shop. Once I figured a few things out, I found MC lathe to be extremely easy. Can you post a screen shot? MY boss S%$^ canned maintenance so we don't have x8

Oh, so that part's your problem now eh?

What they said. I just cut a ton of this, 1/2 5fl, .800 depth, 12% radial, 4800 rpm and 120 ipm. I started drilling start holes at the entry points and my too life went way up. The helical entry seems to be a bit hard on the corners.

almost all of our contracts stipulate that no parts may come in contact with bismuth. If it weren't for that, it looks like something feasible.

We do a lot of 356 castings and they eat up face mill inserts. I would like to find a better alternative.

We inherited a bunch of jobs that were originally programmed for a 4th horizontal and converted to 4th vertical, and G68 was how they did it. Just thought i'd throw that out as an easy solution.

you could also use G68 to rotate it 90 deg.

I just bought a 3 pack of scamdisks at Costco, threw them all in the trash. Nothing but errors.

Wouldn't it be easier to just use an editor to move all the Z's down 1-1/2"? The old MCedit worked good for that, but I'm pretty sure Cimco does it

Actually, if you had bothered to read the OP, he wanted to try milling them because he doesn't have a grinder. So, for $600, the problem goes away, plus he gets a grinder. Oh, and I was lying. I did buy a 1" 6fl carbide em for $50, but it was out of the trunk of some guys car, and I didn't have to go looking, he came to me.

I must be buying my tools at the wrong place. Where can you get a 1" 6 fl carbide em for $50? At several recent auctions I've seen decent 6x12 manual surface grinders go for , give or take, $600

Seriously? He could go out and buy a used surface grinder for less than a 1" carbide end mill would cost.

What is the material? 'm assuming it';s not inconel

If you rotate the plug, the next hole will be passing through the center of the previous hole at an angle. Could be a problem. We've done this a couple ways. 1.You could drill the 1/4 through the first wall, then switch to a 1/4 dia long center drill and spot the hole on the other side of the bore. 2. Drill the 1/4 hole first. 3. Install a removable detail in the fixture with a 1/4 drill bushing in it.