I am trying to cut out a small bowl. When I use my end mill bit, I can rough out the shape, but it is not very smooth. I have a ball nose bit that I would like to use to “finish” the bowl, but I find that my operations has the ball nose retracing the steps of my end mill bit. This means that the bit is cutting air for a long while. Is there a way to have my finishing bit go directly to where my end mill bit left off? Right now, I am looking at almost 6 hours to make a very small, yet smooth bowl?
You can do a Pocket Op with the straight end mill to an Offset shape (at least half the ball nose bit diameter plus 1 or 2mm) with the Depth less 1 or 2 mm than the Final Depth. Then do a Profile Op to the final shape with the ball nose bit Final Depth minus 1 or 2mm.
After do a Pocket Op to the final shape with the ball nose bit to remove the excess wood, start 1 or 2 mm before the final Depth.
As @bperc said you can jog with the Start Depth,
Like this:
Bowl_190914.mage (31.2 KB)
Thanks to both, I will give them both a try to see how things go!!!
I will try the paint color option. I have so many layers, not sure how it will turn out! Thanks for the advice