CNC face milling – simple idea to reduce machining time

Written By Dasarathi

Edited By Ashish

November 10, 2025

8 mins Read

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Reducing machining time in CNC face milling

Most times we blindly use the same tool path for rough and finish CNC face milling, and the tool path looks like the one in the ‘Finishing’ picture below. This is inefficient for roughing, and with a little tweaking you can reduce the machining time. The ‘Roughing’ picture below shows the tweaked and more efficient tool path. Example: If you’re milling a 300 x 180 mm plate with a 100 mm dia. face mill, the time saving with this tool path is 16 %. That’s BIG.

Cadem’s CAPSmill CNC milling programming software has separate tool paths for rough and finish miling, to reduce cycle time.

Author

Dasarathi G V

cadem

Dasarathi has extensive experience in CNC programming, tooling, and managing shop floors. His expertise extends to the architecture, testing, and support of CAD/CAM, DNC, and Industry 4.0 systems.

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