Most real CNC mills in operation today are rigid enough for climb milling, so this was a reasonable default value for Fusion 360 to use, just not for us. Our machine is not rigid at all by CNC mill standards and must be switched over to “Conventional Milling”. Key phrase in that explanation: This generally gives a better finish in most metals, but requires good machine rigidity. But what if we didn’t even have that much knowledge? Thankfully Fusion 360 included a brief explanation accompanying many settings, including the “Sideways Compensation” parameter relevant here. We’re not professional machinists, but we knew enough to know this is not a good way to go for this machine. Looking over parameters for tool path generation, the first item we noticed is the default of “Climb Milling”. We now need to tell Fusion 360 how to be kinder to it.

We know our project machine, built mostly out of salvaged parts, is not a CNC powerhouse.

In parallel with investigating points of weakness within the physical structure, we’re also learning how to make Autodesk Fusion 360 CAM friendlier to hobbyist grade CNC mills.

Autodesk fusion 360 cnc router