CNC Programming Tips and Tricks

▌ 15 CNC Programming Tips and Tricks

1. Do not rotate white steel cutters too fast.

2. Use flying cutters or alloy cutters more often and white steel cutters less frequently for roughing copper work.

3. When the workpiece is too tall, rough it out in layers with cutters of different lengths.

4. After roughing with a large cutter, use a smaller cutter to remove the remaining material to ensure consistent allowances before finishing.

5. Use flat-bottomed cutters for plane machining and avoid using ball cutters to reduce machining time.

6. When cleaning corners in copper work, check the size of the R on the corner first, then determine the size of the ball cutter to use.

7. The four corners of the calibration plane should be planed flat.

8. For angles that are whole numbers, use angle cutters for machining, such as for pipe positions.

9. Before starting each process, consider the remaining allowance from the previous process to avoid empty cuts or over-machining.

10. Opt for simple tool paths, such as contouring, pocketing, and single-sided machining, and minimize contouring and climb milling.

11. When using WCUT, opt for FINISH cuts instead of ROUGH cuts if possible.

12. For contour finishing, rough finish first, then fine finish. If the workpiece is too tall, finish the edges first, then the bottom.

13. Set tolerances reasonably to balance machining precision and computer calculation time. For roughing, set the tolerance to 1/5 of the allowance, and for finishing, set it to 0.01.

14. Add more processes to reduce empty cutter time. Think more to reduce the chance of errors. Add more auxiliary lines and surfaces to improve machining conditions.

15. Develop a sense of responsibility, carefully check each parameter to avoid rework.

▌ Rhyme: For non-planar milling, use ball cutters more, end mills less, and don't be afraid of tool changes; small cutters for cleaning corners, large cutters for fine tuning; don't be afraid to patch surfaces, appropriate patching can increase machining speed and improve the finish. High hardness of the blank material: climb milling is better; low hardness of the blank material: conventional milling is better.

For machines with good precision and rigidity, and for finish machining: conventional milling is more suitable, otherwise climb milling is more suitable.

For finish machining at the inner corners of parts, it is strongly recommended to use conventional milling.

For rough machining: climb milling is better; for finish machining: conventional milling is better.

Cutting tools with good toughness and low hardness: more suitable for rough machining (large cutting volume); cutting tools with poor toughness and high hardness: more suitable for finish machining (small cutting volume).