[homchz]

My Tree 325 Journeyman seems a tad underpowered.

The other day I was working with Annealed plates about .500 thick and needed to mill them down to .420. The plate is about 4" wide and 18" long. Using a 3 inch Milling Cutter with carbide insert and taking a little over 2" a pass with a .025 DOC it would make about 3/4 of a pass then stop with a spindle fault. I have tried ranges between 500-900 RPM spindle speed and 5-10FPM feed rates, all with the same effect.

I would not think a .025 DOC would be too much for a 3HP machine, and I have milled standard machining steel with no issues at .025 DOC, could it be the Annealed Steel, or should I be looking for issues with the Tree?

Thanks in advance for any info.
Josh