1 1/4 fly cutter

[crash5050]

I went to surface my Trupan today, and ran into a bit of a problem. I loaded the 1 1/4 inch fly cutter that was supplied to me in my Shopbot starter kit, and created a pocket toolpath in aspire to take of .002 deom the board. Normally when I load a file via FP it gives me a preview, with the ability to edit the toolpath once, since my Aspire tool database does not have the fly cutter in it, but the SB3 tool database does, I was just simply going to select it from there. But for some reason, when I load that file it does not give me the preview, nor the ability to edit the toolpath.

Is there a way to do this? Am I missing something really simple here?

David

[curtiss]

Can you simply copy the .5 inch end mill bit in your Aspire tool database and give it a new dimension of 1.25 inches ??

It should then preview the same I would think.

[chiloquinruss]

Fire up SB3, go to TOOLS, select SURFACER, and fill in the blanks. Russ

[adrianm]

You can set the previewer and Aspire to use the same tool database so it all works seamlessly. The instructions are in a text file in the sbparts folder.

[crash5050]

Export the tool from the SB3 tool database, then import it into my Aspire database. Brilliant, sometimes I amaze myself.

David

[Rob Gunn]

David, Curtis is correct, just call it a 1.25 dia end mill and it will work just fine. I do want to make a little statement regarding the term "fly cutter". I have been a toolmaker for 25+ years and a true fly cutter has only one cutting tool (not two like what you got in your kit) (do a google image search). What you actually have in you kit is considered a shell cutter. Why would I make such a deal about this? I can tell you that if you try to use a true fly cutter with only one cutting bit you will find that it will not work in router router. A one bit fly cutter is not balanced and will just about shake your router head off of your z-axis. Trust me, dont try it! I did it once and I couldn't hit the off switch fast enough...