Side Milling

Mill
1

What is the simplest way to “Side Mill” a part in path pilot? I’m using a 1100MX and I have not found a simple way to cut a block or a plate to dimension on the X or Y plane. The internet tells me this operation is called “side milling” but it’s essentially “profiling” but with only 1 dimension, like the X or Y plane. “Face Milling” covers the z plane, but I can’t find an easy way to load a large end mill and “square up” the X or Y face of a part.

Any suggestions?

2

There isn’t a direct conversational option for this but I know if a few ways to cheat and make this work.

  • make a profile that has one side the way you want then manually edit the program to remove the rest of the cutting moves that you don’t want.
  • make a pocket so thin that is really just makes a single pass
3

Another “cheat” method is to use a facing op that has no change in one of the axis. Rather than stepping over, you would step down. Personally, I just jog the machine and run it like a manual mill when I just want to square up the sides.

4

Like Tom, I run the machine manually for something like that. You can use the jog speed slider on the right hand side of the screen to adjust your “feedrate”. Position the tool where you want it either by jogging or using the MDI, then just hold the appropriate arrow key for the direction you want the tool to travel in.

Alternatively, you can do everything in the MDI, just make sure you do a G1 before your first cutting move with an appropriate feed rate set so you don’t crash the tool into the part at rapid speed.