So I thought I'd share my experiences for the evening, some of them good, some, well, at least lessons learned :whistle:
1) Climb milling, while necessary for going back and forth across a part numerous times efficiently, has a magical effect on the leadscrew backlash. As in, it will pull the cutter down the work in a most unexptected way. Also, starting down a climb milling pass is liable to pull the whole of the work sideways in the direction the cutter is turning. Which leads me to my next point.
2) Keep the 3/4 end mill away from the X2 for now. I had a climb milling pass that, upon contacting the work (no more than a .020 lateral X .020 deep) pulled the table sideways, and bit in an extra God-knows how much, stopping the cutter most dramatically. Which had the side effect of imparting a horrible ticking noise in the head that I can't find. Probably a broken plastic tooth INSIDE the head, I'm certain it's not above the head, checked that.
Anyway, everything still seems to work, and I suppose I need to just get a sense of how much backlash I can expect. I can plan for a .005, 010, .020, whatever, if I know it's coming, and not to climb my finish pass, but I just don't know my machine well enough yet.
Net result: Learning new things, have mystery tick in the head, and am further along in my current puzzle project than I was before.
1) Climb milling, while necessary for going back and forth across a part numerous times efficiently, has a magical effect on the leadscrew backlash. As in, it will pull the cutter down the work in a most unexptected way. Also, starting down a climb milling pass is liable to pull the whole of the work sideways in the direction the cutter is turning. Which leads me to my next point.
2) Keep the 3/4 end mill away from the X2 for now. I had a climb milling pass that, upon contacting the work (no more than a .020 lateral X .020 deep) pulled the table sideways, and bit in an extra God-knows how much, stopping the cutter most dramatically. Which had the side effect of imparting a horrible ticking noise in the head that I can't find. Probably a broken plastic tooth INSIDE the head, I'm certain it's not above the head, checked that.
Anyway, everything still seems to work, and I suppose I need to just get a sense of how much backlash I can expect. I can plan for a .005, 010, .020, whatever, if I know it's coming, and not to climb my finish pass, but I just don't know my machine well enough yet.
Net result: Learning new things, have mystery tick in the head, and am further along in my current puzzle project than I was before.
