The machine made it's first saleable parts today :)

I did sacrifice two 2mm cutters, here's how...

On the part in the OP, there is a little square notch, first from the left along the top edge, it's about 4mm square and as such was not roughed out by the 5mm tool on the first pass. I set the code for a 2.5mm deep cut on the finishing pass with the 2mm tool and added a reduction to feed with CAM rules, it worked nicely until the tool reached that notch when it died.

I then increased the before and after feed change in CAM so the rate slowed well before and after the notch - ping went another tool. I then reverted back to 0.6mm per pass and 450mm/min rate as before and it sailed through. Still got that slightly poor surface finish though.

So, it seems despite what HSM says, even on severely reduced settings, you cannot slot 2.5mm deep with a 2mm tool.

Now, in light of the slow finish passes and the fact that it did seem to handle the 5mm rads with a CAM rule and 2.5mm DOC, is it worth singling that feature out and running a pre-finish run on it like I did with the loops??

Apart from that, I'm not happy with the paraffin/oil mix, seems to be affecting my hands a bit, I have found a suitable retail item - MilliCut J40 from Cutwell, its a veg oil based product.

Has anyone got there mill in an enclosure? I'm finding the floor is covered in chips about a 4' radius around the little bugger from the roughing passes - the 2mm tool just makes dust.