Choosing the right operations for a specific task can be overwhelming given the number of options available. Let’s start with a quick comparison of the basics.

Similarly than for the Contour operation, we can optionally adjust the heights in the third menu tab. Also here, the fourth menu tab is only used to set step depth and stock-to-leave’s.

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Great in Heavy Radial Efficiency Milling (HREM) applications of Titanium 6Al4V and other titanium alloys, these fully stocked, square profile Variable Helix End Mills decrease chatter and harmonics.

Preliminary trick: by placing your mouse on the icon of an operation, Fusion360 opens a little help widget with a brief explanation of said operation.

The Bore operation with plunge in Z while making a helix in XY. This means that you can “drill out” holes that are up to twice the diameter of your end mill. It is also much faster than using a pocket operation for these holes, and will help chips extract from the hole you are drilling out.

These kinds of projects are often using a 3D Adaptive Clearing operation first (to rough out the stock), and a Scallop operation with a ball end mill next to refine the texture. The Scallop operation will make a 3D toolpath around a point and make the end mill travel all around the texture you are willing to mill to get rid of the rice field effect left by a 3D Adaptive Clearing operation.

There are no parameters to edit when using the Bore operation. Simply select the right tool, preset and the holes you want to bore out, As always, you can (optionally) edit the heights to encounter thick stock or long end mills. There is no need to define ways of going in and out the stock as the Bore operation will describe a helix when plunging into the material.

Harvey Tool is committed to designing unique geometries that optimize cutting performance for a variety of materials and applications. We introduce hundreds of new tools to the market every 6 months, offering our customers the solutions they need most.

To mill pockets, you have to choose between 2 different operations (as explained before) : Pocket and Adaptive Clearing. Please refer to the previous section to learn more about these two operations.

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The only difference in parameters compared with the Pocket operation is in the fourth menu tab. The Optimum Load should always be inferior to your mill’s radius (in our case, smaller than 4 mm). A higher value would cause the mill to heathen up more quickly, and a lower value would give it more time to cool down, but would also increase the milling time. The main advantage of Adaptive Clearing over Pocket is that you can increase the depth of cut. Where we used 3.5 mm for our cut depth when setting up the Pocket operation, we will now go up to 6 mm depth. Which will greatly decrease the milling time.

The fifth menu tab of this operation is quite similar to the one we have for the Contour operation, except that we have multiple options for the Ramps.

If you are using clamps to secure your stock to the spoilerboard, we advise you not to change these values. If you’ve secured your stock using screws, you can change the value up to the ones shown in the figure below (not less).

Harvey Tool is committed to designing unique geometries that optimize cutting performance for a variety of materials and applications. We introduce hundreds of new tools to the market every 6 months, offering our customers the solutions they need most.

When it comes to milling pockets (basically large holes), you have 2 options: the Pocket operation or the Adaptive Clearing operation.

The last tab is to tell Fusion360 how you want your end mill to enter and exit the stock. In general, we recommend using Ramps instead of Leads & Transitions.

To engrave text, logo’s or any other 2D profile in your material, Fusion360 has an Engrave operation. You can learn more about how to use it in our Branding your project.

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In the fourth tab, you should only edit the Multiple passes - Maximum Roughing stepdown value and the Stock to Leave values.

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To set up a Face operation, start by selecting the tool and according Feed and Speed. In the second menu tab, select the contour of the face you want to mill flat.

The Drill operation will use fixed XY coordinates and plunge in Z. This means that you can only drill out a hole that is the exact same diameter as the end mill you are using, and that dust extraction is not very good.

Great in Heavy Radial Efficiency Milling (HREM) applications of Titanium 6Al4V and other titanium alloys, these fully stocked, square profile Variable Helix End Mills decrease chatter and harmonics.

In the second tab, select the contour you want to mill. If this is an exterior contour, we have to use tabs so that, once the mill reaches the bottom of our piece, the whole body doesn’t come loose (which might be very dangerous).

A CNC machine is not only used for 2D operations like cutting contours or making straight holes, it gives you the opportunity to mill 3D textured projects that would have been impossible to achieve by hand (see our Topographical map project).

Just as for the contour operation, we’ll start by defining the end mill end preset we want to use. We will now select the pocket we want to mill out.

Please note that there are many valid ways of milling, and that Fusion360 offers other milling operations than the ones we’ll present in this article. We decided to focus on the ones our Mekanika community uses the most on their own CNC milling machines. After reading this article, we strongly recommend that you try different options and see what works best for you.

The third menu tab is used to define planes above the model for the end mill to travel when it is not cutting. Editing this tab is optional, but you will eventually have to change these values when using long end mills or when milling really thick stock.

We would recommend using helix’s for all materials with the angle set to the values presented before. The values you should change here are :

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The Stepover value is what defines the distance between two toolpath lines. The smaller, the more precise your 3D texture will be. But the longer it is going to take to execute the operation… Usually, a Stepover of 0.3 mm gives good results while remaining fast enough. If it is just to rough out the profile of your model, a Stepover of 0.5-1 mm will be faster and leave an ‘OK’ result.

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The main difference between both operations is that Pocket will keep a constant engagement of your mill in the stock, while Adaptive Clearing will take bites, alternating cutting and cooling.

We offer a comprehensive selection of more than 28,000 miniature and specialty cutting tools that are all fully stocked. The breadth and depth of our products help solve the industry’s toughest machining challenges.

We offer a comprehensive selection of more than 28,000 miniature and specialty cutting tools that are all fully stocked. The breadth and depth of our products help solve the industry’s toughest machining challenges.

Milling flat surfaces is a one of the that huge asset a CNC milling machine can offer. Whether you want to use your CNC as a jointer, mill some engineering projects or just flatten your spoilerboard, the Face operation is the one you want to go for.

As for any operations, you have to start by selecting the end mill you are willing to use for this operation. In our example, we are going to choose an 8 mm flat end mill (from our End mill bundle) for which we will use the hard wood preset.

New to Harvey Tool, Machining Advisor Pro (MAP) is a cutting edge resource for generating customized running parameters for Harvey Tool end mills.

Contour is used to make 2D cuts to free a piece from its stock or to make slots inside the piece.  It can also be used to clean the inner edges after an Adaptive Clearing or Pocket operation. Think of it as a release cut you would do with a jig saw.

Choosing between 2D or 3D operation is pretty straightforward: is the volume you want to mill a straight extruded shape, or is there any variance in the extrusion (chamfers, filets, bumps, gaps, slots, etc…)?

In this article, we’ll give you a quick overview of the main CNC milling operations Autodesk Fusion360 offers, with the goal to help you identify the best ones for your next project.

Where Pocket cut constantly (and thus go faster than Adaptive Clearing), the extra time your mill gets to cool down with the Adaptive Clearing allows it to handle bigger steps. The bigger the pocket you are willing to mill, the more time you will save by using Adaptive Clearing instead of Pocket.