[inthedark]

I currently leave .015 material for my finishing pass. Most of my stuff gets polished, and I have been thinking about making this measurment a littlle greater. My results are pretty good, but I think I could get a better finish, thus less work on the deburring and finishing wheel. Thus saving some time...

Can anyone tell me, what the standard/recommended amount of material being removed during a finishing pass may be?

Also will conventional or climb milling make much of a differance in my finish pass?

Since material may differ, let's say aluminum and steel.

Thanks,
Kenny

[HuFlungDung]

Climb mill with carbide. There's nothing wrong with .015" to finish if you want accuracy.

What kind of controller are you running? Are you doing 3d work? What I am driving at here, is if your program consists of many short segments, then it becomes essential that your controller can read them fast enough to maintain a steady feedrate. Data starvation leads to dwell marks on the work, no matter what. The solution for that is to upgrade to a controller with plenty of lookahead. That's what I am doing

[DDM]

When I'm working in mastercam I usually leave about 10 thou. It's enough to be cut away but at the same time not enough to make the tool wonder. In the finish pass you have quite a bit of room anywhere from 5 to 20 or 30 above, Not sure what ideal is but I'd say your 15 is pretty close,

[inthedark]

Thanks for your input, it is truly appreciated.

My controller is a Fanuc 6, it seems to do well, and I normally make my segments as long as possible. Not too much 3D stuff, mostly 2D.

Even though I use approach and depart methods, the .015 being close still gives a gouge or two for me to deal with from time to time. I figure it's due to raduis cuts in combination with cutter sharpness and speed & feed.

Like many people, I like the automated machining aspect, it's the final deburring and polishing that's dirty and time consuming.

[Stevie]

try arc in and out for the leadin; this will create a better finish