Recently I was milling a .516 wide by .500 deep slot across a 3" wide piece of steel. I did it the way I learned of old ... set the work up so the long axis of the slot was along the X axis of the mill, indicated it in, and then took repeated passes of about .030 DOC at a nice slow X travel... leaving about 0.005 on each side of the slot to be cleaned up in the final pass. This is shown in the first diagram.
As I was doing this, I mused about wear on the cutter. The bottom 30 thou would be doing most of the work, and the middle part would only get one bit of exercise. I have a number of mill cutters that are worn on the bottom and nearly pristine on the middle and top.
My question: What about doing a hand version of adaptive milling? Position the cutter with a .495 DOC. Then move it into the stock sideways until it's about 10 or 20 thou deep. Then move it across the slot front to back to take an "end wall" cut, move back to the beginning, and repeat. This idea is shown in the second diagram.
What are your thoughts?
(Please ignore that Fusion 360 specified climb cutting tool paths. It thinks CNC. I'd do the same sort of path but with conventional milling.)

As I was doing this, I mused about wear on the cutter. The bottom 30 thou would be doing most of the work, and the middle part would only get one bit of exercise. I have a number of mill cutters that are worn on the bottom and nearly pristine on the middle and top.
My question: What about doing a hand version of adaptive milling? Position the cutter with a .495 DOC. Then move it into the stock sideways until it's about 10 or 20 thou deep. Then move it across the slot front to back to take an "end wall" cut, move back to the beginning, and repeat. This idea is shown in the second diagram.
What are your thoughts?
(Please ignore that Fusion 360 specified climb cutting tool paths. It thinks CNC. I'd do the same sort of path but with conventional milling.)


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