Fusion 360 Tool Setup

Space Teams CNC
1

I’ve scheduled the big CNC for the first time this Friday to cut plastic sheets for my Sprinter Van’s wall panels and need a bit of help.

I’m using plastic for the wall panels (Boltaron 4335), in 4’x8’ 0.25" sheets. I’m planning to use a Freud 1/4" x 1-1/8" (Model #72-202) Up Cut Spiral Ball Nose bit, but I need help with manually entering the tool in Fusion (Freud doesn’t have a lib for Fusion that I can find), specifically not sure the length below the holder and flute length.

Here are my tool settings:
Diameter: 0.25"
Shaft Diameter: 0.25"
Overall Length: 3"
Length Below Holder: 2" Not sure here
Shoulder Length: 1.125"
Flute Length: 1.125" Also not sure here

Tool Coolant: Flood
Spindle Speed: 18,000 RPM (recommended by Freud)
Feed Rate: 25" / min (recommended 20"/min to 50"/min from soft plastic to hard by Freud)

For post, I’m using the Laguna post processor + metric.

For holding, I plan to use CA glue + tape as shown in the CNC class.

Any tips or assistance is greatly appreciated. Will also have a decent amount of scrap plastic leftover due the sheets being 4x8 and the shape of the panels.

2

Flute length is the length of the sharp cutting edge.

Length below holder is the total length sticking out from the collet. Fusion is using that to determine if the holder will ever collide with the stock. The collet needs some amount of engagement, maybe 1.25" or so? In that case, the length below holder would be total length - the 1.25" or so that’s in the collet. I don’t think this number is that important in your case, since you are cutting thin flat material.

3

First thing I would say is to not use a ball nose if you’re trying to cut through anything. You only want that type of bit if you’re creating a rounded profile/chamfer, engraving, or 3d carving something.

You won’t be using any coolant on the wood cncs, so set that to none.

Feed and speed wise I’m not sure on plastics but general rule of thumb for speeds is the smaller diameter the faster it needs to spin. 1/4” bits will prob be at 18k.

Try plugging some stuff into a chip load calculator, i recommend wandering into cutting it close YouTube channel

Other than that, just use some calipers and plug in the numbers to a new tool in fusion, the diagram should show you where to measure, and a lot of times the product page will have most of those values

4

Thanks, that is helpful and now makes sense!

5

Thanks for the help. Will checkout cutting it close. Ordered some new bits!