Help Effectively Routing a "simple" 3D Shape

[Ross Moshinsky]

I don't do any work in 3D but I was contacted today about doing something and it looked simple enough so I figured I'd work on it a bit.

The goal is to route the following two files out of black walnut lumber. I ran it through Aspire and the roughing pass and finishing pass come up between 6-7 hours per arm. The roughing pass is with a regular end mill and the finishing pass with a 1/8" ball end mill. My guess is there has to be a more efficient way to route something like this.

Any tips or suggestions on how to attack this project efficiently yet still produce a quality product?

3D arms.zip

[Bruce Page]

Post the crv3d file.

[Kevin L. Waldron]

Ross,

These two parts should be done in less than 1 hour.... just played with what you had.....If we were actually doing the file we'd bring the parts closer together. We'd probably do one more final pencil pass with a 1/8" bit on the tapered seams but you should get the picture.....think our file says something like 36 minutes...... as is....

Rough pass was 25% step over and 275 speed = 1/2" end mill

Final pass was 10% step over and 275 speed= 1/2" end mill

You probably may want to do a profile cut out but maybe not.....

Blessings,

Kevin

Arms Left & Right.jpgRough Pass.jpgFinish Pass.jpg

[Ross Moshinsky]

I'll post the file tomorrow. Sorry. I figured a STL would be a bit more versatile and that's what the customer provided as well.

Kevin: What kind of machine do you have? Would you do this all with a 1/2" ball nose end mill? What kind of depth per pass do you do?

[Kevin L. Waldron]

Ross,

Our files default to 1/8" cuts....... with 1/2" end mills...... sorry, and I didn't change the default. We have a Techno Premium.... 12' x 5' x 19" z.... ( Our software of choice is Rhinoceros and Rhinocam and/or Madcam for 3D work normally....... 2.5 work we would probably use Aspire )

I don't see a reason to use a ball nose on straight cuts or leveling.... Parts like shown below yes, a ball nose would be necessary but not for what you show.

Blessings,

Kevin
Maloof Style Seat.jpg

[Ted Reischl]

From what I can see of your model there is very little to no detail. Is there a reason you are using a 1/8 ball nose? With that model I would use the biggest one I have which is 3/4. This will increase the stepover significantly. Also, what feedrate are you using?