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Author Topic: Any benefit to climb vs. regular milling?  (Read 5706 times)

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Any benefit to climb vs. regular milling?
« on: September 05, 2014, 11:51:28 AM »
I notice that importing stuff into LazyCam results in pretty much a climb mill default for all cutting operations.

I'm wondering if this is done for some specific reason?  From my woodworking experiencing, I know a climb cut can provide a nice clean-up pass with stock that wants to tear-out.  But normally we don't climb cut.

I see I can change this with the lead-in settings.  Does everyone leave the climb mill default, or do people only do this for a final clean-up pass?

TIA!

Offline ger21

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Re: Any benefit to climb vs. regular milling?
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2014, 12:58:05 PM »
First, most of use don't use LazyCAM.
As a woodworker who's been using CNC machines for almost 20 years, I can tell you that I almost never climb cut. The main use of climb cutting wood for me is cutting rabets.

If your cutting plastics or aluminum, then always climb cut.
Gerry

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Re: Any benefit to climb vs. regular milling?
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2014, 01:29:19 PM »
First, most of use don't use LazyCAM.
As a woodworker who's been using CNC machines for almost 20 years, I can tell you that I almost never climb cut. The main use of climb cutting wood for me is cutting rabets.

If your cutting plastics or aluminum, then always climb cut.

Okay thanks for the feedback.  Is there an easy to explain reason for climb cutting aluminum and plastics?  Does it have something to do with the way the chips are formed or something?
Re: Any benefit to climb vs. regular milling?
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2014, 10:38:41 PM »
Climb cutting requires a tight machine with low backlash otherwise the cutter pulls itself into the material. CNC and ballscrews and such changed that part of the process.

On metals with conventional cutting the cutting edge is sliding along the surface until enough pressure builds up that it starts to peel off the chip and the chip gets thicker as you go up to your feed per tooth. In climb milling the tooth enters the material at full feed per tooth, there is no sliding and the chip gradually thins out until it breaks off.  On metals that work harden the material gets hardened by the sliding in conventional milling but not with climb.  So your tool lasts longer.

Offline Sam

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Re: Any benefit to climb vs. regular milling?
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2014, 02:24:09 PM »
The main reason why I climb mill, is because of tool flex. If you conventional mill, the tool flexes to the inside, as to decrease the dimensions of your part (=bad). If you climb mill, tool flex is to the outside, so there are no worries about ruining a part due to your part ending up to small. Usually, my process for milling is...rough pass with roughing cutter, finish pass with same roughing cutter, then finishing pass with finishing cutter. If you were to conventional mill using this same strategy, then any time you needed to tweak your feed rate, or spindle RPM, it would have a greater impact on the next step, because of the tool flex amount, such as--to much material needing removed for the finishing pass (bad), or not enough material left to even have a finishing pass (ruined part bad). There's simply a lot more time/aggravation/risk to tweak a conventional mill tool path, rather than a climb path. That's my opinion on it, anyhow.
"CONFIDENCE: it's the feeling you experience before you fully understand the situation."