The rest of the article gives you an even deeper dive on these techniques including Trochoidal Milling and Plunge Milling. Here’s my CNC Chef video from Cutting Tool Engineering magazine to provide a quick intro to Deep Pocket and Deep Slot Milling: Let’s go over the different techniques that are available to address these issues. The answer is to use proven techniques to proactively address the challenges of Deep Pocket Milling that we know are there. How can we make Deep Pocket Milling more of a science and less trial and error? Tate reports taking 0.030″ depth of cut passes and 600 rpm were the secret, discovered after some trial and error experimentation and a broken endmill. With a part like that, if the tool doesn’t chatter from the long reach the thin walls will chatter. Couple all that with thin walls and you have this part Eric Tate recently showed on the Yahoo Tormach forums:ģ.125″ deep pocket, 3/8″ endmill, and thing walls too! Using long or extended reach tools to reach down into a deep pocket situation leads to problems with:Īll this adds up to poor tool life, breakage, and longer cycle times.

Whether you call it Deep Pocket, Deep Cavity, or Deep Slot Milling, dealing with extended reach situations is one of the hardest problems in machining. Click here to learn more about the Master Class. Note: This is Lesson 18 of our Free Email Feeds & Speeds Master Class.