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Minor question, my milling book talks about 'up milling' vs. 'down milling' and how one should only do 'up milling'. The pictures show a cutter milling one edge of a workpiece, and I get the difference in that situation. What I'm mostly doing however is milling channels into a block where the material is going into the cutter, and so the cutter is surrounded by material in the entire 180* of the direction of travel. In that case, it seems to me like half the material is being fed as in 'up milling' and half as in 'down milling', and I was wondering if it actually made any difference which way one travelled when making a channel. (Once you start widening it, then there is a difference, but not on the original cut...)
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Sorry, when posting the tip for squaring the head of the mill didn't mean to come across as an expert geek, I have a small cnc milling machine, with a cad/cam program that figures most of the stuff for me, and I am also learning the ropes so to speak. I am sure there are better qualified people here, in this forum that will better answer your question, OR will dutifully and instantly correct any barbarisms you or I can make
Assuming when you mention the"cutter" that you are referring to an "end mill", and not to a "cutter wheel", my guess for the "up milling" or "down milling" is that you should cut the material always in the direction of the rotation of the quill (up milling), so the sharp edges of the tool will be "biting", not back-sliding against the material beingt cut.
Hope this of help.