Finishing the part using a morphed spiral

As we saw in Figure 10.5, there are several options for finishing, some of which have many traits in common and are sometimes even interchangeable. The idea behind them all is to implement multiple cutting passes very close to each other. The smaller the distance between these cutting passes, the better the overall surface finish.

For our example, I think that one of the best operations we can pick is Morphed Spiral. This command creates an adaptive path all around the part and is capable of machining complex shapes with steep surfaces.

As usual, before launching the command, we have to choose the right tool to use. When finishing a complex 3D contour (like in our example), a ball nose end mill is one of the best possible options. However, this type of tool would be a bad choice for us, given our shape and our three-axis machine. The reason is pretty simple: our part has flat surfaces!

As you can see in the following diagram, on the...