Plunge or mill?

[Davek0974]

the way I do it personally is to mill the pocket square first and then peck drill the corners with the cutter afterwards so there is not so much force on the cutter

OK, thats the opposite way i was thinking but sounds just as effective, i guess plunging the corners after the hole is opened does leave less strain on the tool.

[Davek0974]

Well, i've re-cammed the first job and will test it tomorrow.

In simulation its much faster, have also discovered how to quickly create the hole locations in Vectric, probably quicker than adding the dog-bones :)

When peck-drilling however, it seems a little unclear. The tool path options show peck depth and retract height so it looks like a full retract every peck? Is there no chip-breaking or partial-retract option?

[Davek0974]

This works really well, faster and I'm not even certain peck drilling is needed for a 5mm deep hole, just a straight plunge would be even faster.

Have to be careful if roughing corners with a 5mm tool as in my case, after the corners hole is drilled it leaves a little lip where the edge of the 5mm tool radius reached, the 2mm finish tool takes a bit of a bite here but seems ok with it.