If you’re unsure on the operation, pay attention to the Tooltips! Radial Stock controls the amount of material to leave around the sides of the router bit, whereasĪxial Stock controls the amount of material to leave in Z-axis direction (ideally going straight down). You can set up a roughing pass by simply setting the amount of “Stock to Leave” in the Passes section of your tooling feature: Adding your initial cut with a roughing pass allows you to chew through a bulk of the material quicker, while leaving the finer more important locations (such as the edges) to be finished with a slower passing and smaller bit for getting into and around tight locations. For precision and quality, always perform a roughing pass on edges before a finishing pass.Īfter the first time of attempting the manufacturing process on the CNC Machine, I definitely did not consider a finishing pass and wound up ripping up any corners that faced the cutting edge of the router bit. This is drastically slower than a Plunge straight into the wood – spiral bits are designed much like a drill bit,

The 2d Pocket operation allows for Helix cuts (essentially a circular cut that ramps down into a specified depth). A fluted drill bit will have to ramped down into a pocket cut as opposed to a spiral bit, which can make a plunge cut, which (depending on how many pockets you have) can drastically speed up production. This is actually pretty important on the CAM side of things.

Here’s a list of some of the most important things I’ve learned along the way: Know what drill bits you have and how they work. Finding myself in dire need of a way to store things in between games, I designed up a simple box for cards and dice, and began experimenting with Fusion 360’s CAM functionality…and I have to say, I’m rather impressed. Being a gaming hobbyist (and having access to a large industrial CNC Router), I thought I’d rectify that.

I’ve never had issues with designing parts, but I’ve never really delved too much into the realm of CNC.

Fusion 360 hobbyist