![]() But, if your spindle rpm is the limiting factor, you may not be able to take full advantage of HSM. Plunge Feeds and Speeds may be a little slower than straight up high speed machining. Image courtesy of Hypermill.Īnother way Plunge Milling can help overcome a machine’s limitations is when spindle speed is limited. Talk about a lack of rigidity–long reach and thin walls make Plunge Milling a natural for this 5-axis turbine application. Plunge Milling can also be just the ticket when your machine’s spindle power is limited, according to Sandvik. How about a Mill-Turn situation where your live tooling is not nearly as rigid as on a pure milling machine? Here again, you may find Plunge Milling is just the ticket. Sandvik says Plunge Milling is advantageous any time overall Tool Stick out is more than 4 x Tool Diameter. Plunge Milling seems tailor-made for the limited rigidity and performance of Hobby CNC machines too, for example.Īnd speaking of a lack of rigidity, Plunge Milling can be ideal for those really deep pockets where side forces are causing so much tool deflection you can hardly make progress at all. Older (or cheaper) CNC milling machines that have more slop in the XY axes, less precise interpolation, or slower spindle speeds may also benefit from exercising the Z-axis more via Plunge Milling. Or, you may be able to overcome a chatter problem that’s due to a lack of rigidity. By taking advantage of the greater rigidity your machine will have in the Z direction, you may be able to get higher Material Removal Rates. Perhaps you have a relatively lightweight or less rigid machine. Taken together, it’s pretty easy to see where Plunge Milling could turn into your Secret Weapon. By changing forces from side forces (XY plane) to axial (Z) up and down forces, we get much more rigid cutting. Most CNC Machines have Z as their stiffest axis.Twist drills often have much higher material removal rates than endmills.It is designed to take advantage of two important properties: I called Plunge Milling a “Secret Weapon” above because it can really save your bacon in some situations. A subsequent finish pass will complete the pocket.īet you weren’t expecting that big honking Face Mill booking through the material at those speeds and feeds. ![]() As you can see, a chain of holes are plunged vertically with the milling cutter to rough out most of the pocket area. The graphic shows a typical plunge milling operation for a square pocket. Plunge Milling a Pocket – Image courtesy of BobCAD… The idea, is to rough out a pocket, profile, or 3D surface by plunging either a twist drill, an endmill, or a special-purpose milling cutter straight down into the material. ![]() Plunge Milling is a type of CAM Toolpath, though it can be programmed manually as we will see. Have you got a tough job ahead, either because your machine is too lightweight or because of challenging geometry on the part (deep pockets, for example)? What about because of a tough to machine material like Titanium? If so, maybe Plunge Milling (also called Plunge Roughing) is the answer. Plunge Milling / Roughing: CNC Secret Weapon What is Plunge Milling?
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