Took me 3 hours to dial in a simple 2D contour path today

I was cutting some aluminum brackets on my Haas Mini Mill, nothing fancy, just a basic profile. But the part kept coming out .005 oversize on the radius and I couldn't figure out why. Spent two hours checking tool offsets, re-measuring the cutter, even ran a test cut in plastic. Finally realized my roughing pass was leaving too much stock and the finishing pass was deflecting the end mill. Has anyone else chased a simple setup way longer than it should take?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery62918h ago

Saw a guy on Practical Machinist say tool runout was his hidden gremlin.

king.ruby18h ago

That hidden gremlin's usually just a dirty taper in my experience.