Ball Nose End Mill Surface Finish
This results in a better surface finish and much faster machining time.
Ball nose end mill surface finish. The ball mill finish calculator can be used when an end mill with a full radius a ball mill is used on a contoured surface. End mills middle row in image are those tools which have cutting teeth at one end as well as on the sides. The ballnose end mill is a special sort of tool. All of robert s thoughts are applicable to turning as well.
The ability to machine a flat surface. In the case of turning substitute nose radius for turning diameter and think of feedrate in inches per revolution instead of stepover. In the worst case vibration will turn into chatter which is a harmonic effect that will be very visible in your surface finish. And yet the tool is lacking in a capability one might take for granted in other cutters.
Rigidity in all areas is key to a fine surface finish and any vibration of flex is going to be bad for your surface finish. Ball nose milling without a tilt angle. A ball end mill is constructed of a round cutting edge and used in the machining of dies and molds. Its ability to mill up and down the contours of complex surfaces makes it invaluable to mold shops and other makers of 3d forms.
The fake ball nose dia calc is designed to give you an accurate calculation of the adjusted diameter for. It is basically a ball endmill with a very tiny flat cutting portion on the nose to avoid the zero surface feet at the tip for example a 6mm dia ball has around a 1mm flat. The tool radius on each side of the cut will leave stock referred to as a scallop. The finish of the part will be determined by the height of the scallop amd the scallop will be determined by the stepover distance.
If your after a real good surface finish and you feel the part geometry needs to be surfaced with a ball endmill a very good alternative is the flat ball from lmt fette. You get the idea. The words end mill are generally used to refer to flat bottomed cutters but also include rounded cutters referred to as ball nosed and radiused cutters referred to as bull nose or torus they are usually made from high speed steel or cemented carbide and have one or more flutes. The primary impact of workholding on surface finish is vibration.
As one can see in the two pictures below an end mill with a corner radius on a shallow slope produces much shallower scallops than a ballnose end mill would. You get scallops when turning and there are surface finish requirements there too that g wizard will calculate.