5 Design Tips to Make Your CNC Parts Easy for Milling

Have you considered the machining requirements for part when you are designing the CNC machining parts? On the premise of meeting the function, cosmetic appearance and reliability of products, the design of CNC parts should be easy for manufacturing and cost-efficient. Here we will talk about CNC milling tips: 

1. The depth of milling area

The milling area should not be too deep, and the depth-to-width ratio should not exceed 3:1. Otherwise, the milling cutter will be easy to break off, then increasing the cost. 

2. The life of the milling cutter

If a long milling cutter is unavoidable, the design can be optimized to improve the life of the milling cutter as the following pictures shows. 

3. The corner radius

The corner radius should be remained in the corner of large sunken area of the part, and the corner radius should be consistent with the diameter of standard milling cutter. As shown in the figure of original design, the corner is right angles, the part is not available for milling, and should be manufactured via more expensive process (such as EDM). While in the optimized design, milling can be realized by adding the corner radium. 

4. Adding boss structure

When there is high requirement on flatness of part surface, the boss structure is required. Milling boss structure surface instead of the entire surface will be easy to ensure the flatness and reduce the milling area. 

5. The outer corner angles

Bevel instead of rounded corner should be designed to facilitate the milling. Because the rounded corner required milling cutter with form relieved teeth, which is troublesome in clamping and will raise high manufacturing cost.