I like the high feed mill idea. I'll have to look into it further on our next batch. I keep hearing good things but sometimes its hard to get my pop (boss) to fork over the dough for new tools. I finally got him to switch over to carbide variable flute endmills a couple years ago, before that he was still using HSS corncob roughers lol.

3/8" (Linky) Your assumption is correct, large side in 4th axis and small side supported with center. I think I've stumbled across my solution. In THIS video he uses multiaxis flowline. If I did a small lead/drag angle and choose the "flow" to be across and not along the helix? I really want to avoid using the 4th axis' rotation to do the roughing. Meaning I want the 4th to be more of an indexer than a full 4th so that I'm not relying on the small weakish 4th axis to rough the material.

3/8" (Linky) Your assumption is correct, large side in 4th axis and supported with center. I think I've stumbled across my solution. In THIS video he uses multiaxis flowline. If I did a small lead/drag angle and choose the "flow" to be across and not along the helix? I really want to avoid using the 4th axis' rotation to do the roughing. Meaning I want the 4th to be more of an indexer than a full 4th so that I'm not relying on the small weakish 4th axis to rough the material.

Hello, I'm trying to figure out how to rough out the helix of and Auger using HSM toolpaths. We keep getting more and more Augers that we need to make and our current strategy is extremely time consuming. First thing is, we do these on a Haas VF0 with 4th axis (HA5C which is a small full 4th) and simply do a X, Z, and A move do feed down along the Auger "flights" but take full width and shallow depth. My goal is to do more of a peel milling operation starting furthest away from the 4th axis and rough towards the 4th axis to maintain as much rigidity as possible while roughing. What would be the right toolpath to choose for this? Other details: The part is approx. 14" long with 3" major diameter and 1.5" minor diameter on large side and tapers to 1.25" major diameter and .38" minor diameter. The pitch is 1-1/4" and we turn a "blank" of finished OD dimensions before bringing it to the mill. When roughing with our current strategy we need to offset the tool off center in Y so that while the part is rotating the material is not coming up into the center of the bottom of the endmill. Staying on center in Y made terrible noises. We have MCX6 at the shop but I also have access to MCX9 at my other job both have multiaxis toolpaths.

Hi again, Lately we have been getting more and more of these parts (family of parts) so we would like to "fine tune" some of our processes and hand deburring is at the top of the list. The parts are around 1/2" diameter OD with around a 5/32" diameter flat bottom hole down the middle that sometimes has a big taper (up to 60 degrees and around .46"). On the mill with 4th axis we have to mill a slot (1/16" wide) that intersects the flat bottom hole. The last bit of deburring that I have to figure out is to debur where that hole intersects that slot. We would like to try and use a small lollipop cutter to back chamfer that. I have tried to get a 5 axis curve toolpath to do what i would like but it is not coming out the right way. Am I on the right track? What do you guys do to accomplish an even break with a lollipop cuter along a curves? Oh and just to clarify the 4th axis is holding onto the OD of the part. I'd rather not upload a file of the model I'm using right now because I do not want to jeopardize our relationship with this company but I made a sample file (actual file has a lot more features) of an example of the parts we are trying to debur. Thank you, Scott Sample.bmp

Sweet thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the help

Thank you guys. Seems like I was way over thinking it. 1 more question, what is the easiest way to use the indexer without getting all kinds of different offsets. I always end up going through the program just deleting all the offsets that are not G54. I assume there's a better way?

I mostly use FSWizard (speed/feed calc with many other useful stuff), and Journeyman Machinist(similar thing just has some other easier to use stuff) Other apps I use frequently are iEngineer (standard bolt info along with drill sizes and tap drill sizes), WEIGHT Calc (raw material weight calculator for all different shapes including structural shapes), and Evernote (nothing to do with machining, just easy note taking)

Also, you will see in the picture that there are a couple features on each part that are at odd angles. I figured it would be easiest to ignore them for this discussion. Thanks again

Hey Guys, I think this is my first time posting a new thread here, so I'll give a little intro of myself and where I work. Intro - My name is Scott, I work with my Father in a small shop (just me and him). We have a 1996 VF0 with 4th axis, H.H. Roberts (2-axis lathe), and a retrofit cnc knee mill. Our work is becoming more and more complex which I enjoy greatly and this forum among others have been invaluable for me to learn from others. Question - We are getting ready to run a small amount of 304SS pieces in our Haas VF0. We will mount 2 blanks into the indexer and that is where my confusions come into play. I've attached a picture of the setup to help you understand my questions. There will be no simultaneous 4th axis work, just indexing and machining, and also the parts do not have any tight tolerances (+/- .005 everywhere). 1. Our normal practice is to have the centerline of the index to be Y and Z axis 0 with our single piece jobs. Should This be the same for multiple parts? 2. I'm going to program so that the machine will do all operations with the same tool at the same time as opposed to completely machining 1 part, then machining the other to reduce cycle time. How should the offsets be? Should there be an offset for each index? or offsets for each part at each index? For example just 4 different offsets, 1 being at 0 degrees, another at 90 degrees and so on. Or 6 offsets, 1 offset at 0 degrees (one access to 1 piece), 2 offsets at 90 degrees for each piece...? Thank you in advance, Scott TC0007 Fixture Assembly.pdf

Give latheinserts.com a try with those Titan endmills. The website isn't special but the prices are usually very good.

Titan makes a good endmill at a fair price. Can get them from Hemly and any other number of places. Lakeshore carbides got some good stuff too.