QUESTION: Does it matter how many teeth or flutes my end mills have? ANSWER: Actually it does. A good rule of thumb for the beginner: the harder the material, the more teeth!  What’s the difference between teeth and flutes? Teeth do the cutting, flutes bring the cut material away from the part. The excerpt from […]

Question: I know nothing about tools for CNC machines.  What kind are there, and what can I use them for? Answer: There is so much to learn about tooling when it comes to CNC machines, that it can really be overwhelming. Here we present just the basics as it pertains to a “rookies” classroom. There […]

There is so much to learn about tooling when it comes to cnc machining equipment, that it can really be overwhelming. Here we present just the basics as it pertains to a “rookies” classroom. There are complete courses on these topics, but this should get you started First of all, We have put together a […]

Question: How do I use HSM, the CAM tab in Autodesk Inventor? Solution: Do we have some tutorials for you! Jim and I put this together, as Jim has been playing with it for some time now, and we feel comfortable enough to put out some videos. Please keep in mind that these videos are […]

QUESTION: What is Stepover? ANSWER: Stepover is defined as the the space between passes of a tool during an operation. The HSM default is 95%, making a very smooth finish on a surface with a ball end mill, but it will sacrafice machine time. In other words, it’ll take forever!  You can change it to 1/2 […]

QUESTION: What is Depth of Cut? How deep can I cut on a single pass? ANSWER: Great question! a good rule of thumb is the depth of cut shouldn’t be greater than 1/2 the diameter of the tool; especially on smaller machines.  Any more than this and you risk messing up the bearings in your […]