Ripple Plate

First venture into some 3D machining, up until this project most of what I had ever CNC Milled was basic slots, pockets and holes which could all be done in flat 2D layers. I wanted to come up with a simple free-flowing wave-like shape I could smooth out with a ball endmill.

Modeled the part up in SolidWorks using a free-form spline surface cut, and spent some time playing with the CAM settings till I got something that would run on the HAAS mini-mill.

I ended up offsetting the stock height a little as I was a little worried about how close the final pass was to the top of the vice, hence why the top of the machined part isn’t as rounded as the 3D model. Otherwise turned out fine.

Whole project was a test of patience though watching it take such small passes with the ball-endmill to get the smooth waves.

Next up on the list of things I haven’t done before: using the 4th axis!