I am new to CNC, but have plenty of experience on woodworking. While working with handheld Router, one should mind the rotational direction of the router and the direction you want to work on your piece, so that you always mill to the opposite direction of the rotation.
I wonder whether this applies to a CNC as well. The thing with handheld router is a security issue and you may get surprised by kickback etc.
I am just wondering, however, while using Freecad’s path module, in some operations like adaptive clearing I do not even get annoption to decide on the tool path and intuitively it seems to work on the “wrong” side when clearing the material.
Does this issue have any relevance to working with CNC?
At least in estlcam, this is a setting called “conventional vs climb milling”. Conventional is how Norm Abrams and you would do it with a hand router. Climb is the opposite.
There are advantages to both. The risk of a router flying off of the machine are nil. But the biggest difference is that conventional milling pulls the bit into the work more, so any error from flex is making the part smaller. Climb is pushing away a little. Unless I got those backwards .
Climb milling tends to be more ideal for chip clearing and avoiding recutting chips leading to better surface finishes and less potential to clog of the flute(s). Really dont need to worry about conventional milling on CNC’s that use belts/ball screws since there really isnt any backlash. Unless you are trying to cut down on non cutting moves for roughing, really no need for conventional milling.
Yep, climb FTW on these machines… conventional you’re apt to flex past your finish cut.
I also came from decades of hand router work too… it’s all backwards in cnc land lol. On a related note… how many here are still cutting sheet metal with a cutoff wheel using conventional cut, not climb? Again… cutoff wheels it’s climb FTW… I have seen a surprising amount of building contractors who did not know this.
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