The inspiration for this exercise came from the undulating scaled surface of fish skin. The geometry of the panel breaks from the repetitive nature of real fish scales by the introduction of a point of distortion. This point of distortion is further emphasized by using particular milling strategies.
In order to achieve the desired form, two milling finishings were used. The first strategy used was a parallel finishing. The tool diameter was 12mm ball mill with stepover control as 35% of the tool diameter. The spindle speed was set to 8077 and the cutting speed assigned was 15.24. The total time taken for this strategy was 70 minutes. The second finishing was a radial finish using the same 12mm dia ball mill tool with stepover control as 150% of the tool diameter. The cutting speed assigned was 15.24. The entire mat took 40 minutes to mill with this finishing.
