I made amazing headway in the model car project, got that custom toolpath made, and put together a mini workflow to build future ones!
The spline system worked amazingly well, and I was able to get a very crisp and tight corner! I also worked through a lot of the rest of the CAM operation and improved what I had originally, by taking advantage of a shell mill to finish off certain flat features. I noticed that many of my finishing toolpaths didn't turn out so good, and the speeds and feeds just weren't the right combo. I'm noticing this on the rocket project as well, where the final operation could use some fixing.
It's another big lesson in slowing things down, and I still find myself wanting to use my previous knowledge about S&F to run the parts. However, the tool wear is much greater than slowing it down a ton and taking things slow and steady. I think the main reason I'm having so much difficulty in this is that I know the solution, I don't know why the solution works, and I think I may need to go back to the basics in that sense and get my S&F completely understood.
My boss shared a Helical resource page where it defines both conventional and climbs milling in a very comprehensive way that I hadn't really considered before. I already know that the climbing method is ideal for CNC milling, and I understand how it works, just not the exact reason behind it.
The conventional way of milling is where the end mill slices into the material from 0-100% tooth engagement and swoops up to the chip's largest part. Climb milling is where you start with 100-0% of the tooth engagement and slice inward till it leaves the material, with the chip getting smaller as it reaches the end.
The problem with conventional milling is that the tool has more contact with the material while cutting, allowing for heat to build up. On the flip side, with climb milling, you take the largest part of the cut first, and everything after that is exponentially decreased, so the cutter can get the biggest area that could cause heat out first. It puts the brunt of the work upfront and expells the chip before much heat can transfer to the rest of the material.
Helical used the metaphor of working out at the gym. At the beginning of the workout, we can lift the most; then, we can do less and less as time goes on.