things i learned about CAM

When you are using an adaptive clear to cut out a pocket of material, don’t have the tool enter the stock by spiraling down. Instead, first do a drilling operation with a drill size larger than your adaptive clearing tool size. Then in the adaptive settings, select that hole as the “pre-drilled entry position” so the tool can drop in and then use side milling instead of spiraling down as its cutting.

Spot drill depth do 20 or 30 thou. I did 50 thou and Rick said that’s pushing it.

For drilling holes with a relatively large depth (over 0.75” deep) use the deep drilling full retract option. You can run drilling feeds and speeds with whatever HSM works defaults to but drill sizes over 3/8” probably should be run at like 60% feed rate on the dial when you’re doing it IRL.

Always include some stock to leave on top of a part when using an adaptive clear so you can follow up with a face operation. HSM works adaptive clear ops sometimes leave behind little ridges about 15 thou thick in certain areas which can be filed down (if surface finish doesn’t matter) or taken off with a face op (better especially if you need that face to be flat for setting on mill table).