Speeds and Feeds

[frogger]

I have been machining Aluminum only for the past 12 months. I've just thrown a block of mild steel in and drawn a blank on speeds and feeds. I'm roughing with a 5/16 Ball End Mill on a VF1, any ideas would be cool,

Cheers,
Frog Man

[DSL PWR]

Carbide or HSS?

[frogger]

Sorry,
Carbide

[mrainey]

Good info here.

http://www.niagaracutter.com/techinfo/index.html

[frogger]

Thanks MRainy,

I threw some data into the mix and came up with about the numbers I am using.
As I mentioned before, I machine mostly Alluminium and usually the same parts so the numbers just come out of my head really. This is the first plane carbon steel we've machined on our VF1 and the first steel I've machined for years. At the moment I'm running..

2500RPM
Feed Rate 400mm/M or 15.7"/M (sorry about the metric)
Depth of cut 1mm 0.04"
step over 3mm 0.12"
Carbide Ball nose 8mm 5/16" Diameter (tools hanging out 40mm 1.5")

Does anyone have comments on this? Does it seem close to what you would use or off the mark? It seems a little slow to me and I also have some vibration.

See set up,

Thanks
Frog

[Geof]

You could probably take both rpm and feed up quite a bit. It is a bit of a play off between how fast you want to remove metal and how long you want the tool to last. At your current speed and feed your tool is probably going to last a long time but is removing metal slowly; if you double the rpm and tripled the feed you will remove metal faster but the tool will not last as long; exactly how long is difficult to predict, but it is likely the extra cost in tools is more than compensated for by the time saving in machining.

It is possible you could take the speed up even higher than double, take the feed up to four or five times and use an air blast rather than coolant for much faster removal with good tool life.

[mrainey]

At a .040 cut depth the cut width is only .209, so you're under 140 SFM, which is quite low.

On the other hand, your tool is hanging out pretty far, so the potential for cranking up speeds and feeds might be somewhat limited.

The only way to find out is to give it a try.

[KevinWilkins]

There's lots of different types of alu, check which grade you are using and contact the maker of your cutter for proper feeds and speeds for the cutter. Works every time!

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Good info here.

http://www.niagaracutter.com/techinfo/index.html

Respect

Frogger,

I would highly recommend having at look at this excellent software ME Consultant Professional from here http://www.mrainey.freeservers.com/

John

[frogger]

Thanks for all the help.

[rickyt]

You can also go into the Help/Cal menu and page down to the speed and feeds cal. I used it the other day with some D2 on my TM-2 and it was pretty close. I like that you can put in the chip/tooth, rpm, sfm and tool dia. then BAM there it is.

[littlerobb]

I push my machines to the absolute limit. Replacing tooling is a cheap way to make parts efficiently. I have a vf3 that I run a one inch e.m. 120 inches a minute in 6061, speeds and feeds are something you feel with your forehead, know what I mean?
Robert