Cutting Stainless steel on a CNC Router (MultiCam)

[routski]

We cut lots of aluminum and acrylic of all thicknesses, but now we are thinking of cutting 1/4" Stainless Steel on our MultiCam Router.
Has anyone done this before, and can offer some feedrate and spindle speed advice?

Thanks
Larry

[merl]

look up " friction welding" as that is what you will be doing if you try cutting stainless on a typical high speed router.
Stainless does not lend its self to high spindle speeds and it requires a very ridged machine to get anything done.
You may find that you can make a pass of a few thousands depth but it's unlikely you will make it through the entire pass before your cutting tool gets dull and does the friction welding thingy I refer to above.
There is no easy way to work stainless but you do need a very ridged machine.
At my shop we are currently in a long run of 316,317 and, 2205 stainless parts and even our biggest Mazaks are only able to run at half of thier normal speed.
If you need to make something from stainless that you think could be run on a router why don't you see if someone can do the job on a water jet? At 1/4 " even 317 SST goes pretty quick.

[xjdubber]

you do not want to attempt that, your spindle will hate you!