Newbie- High Speed toolpaths

[Ford25]

Hello all! i'm not sure if im in the right forum. i just loaded MX4 a couple days ago and yea i'm having a couple problems but were workin those out. in the mean time i'm experimenting with some high speed toolpaths on 13-8 steel with a 1" solid carbide cutter. i'm curious if anyone would have a calculator or a simple way to figure out max feeds and speed or a way to just fine tune them. at the moment i'm running at 36 ipm and at 3600 rpm. any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all

[charger19690]

I am not sure what your application is but I would figure around 100 to 150 sfm.

If you are moving alot of material I would suggest Plunge Milling first with an Indexable tool, then you can run around there quickly to cut off the scallops.

I am not trying to push, but for the money a 1" Carboloy Seco Superturbo would be the best bang for your buck, I love them.

Big solid carbide endmills are expensive whereas indexable tools are cheaper to run.

I got introduced to them a couple years ago at a different shop and am still using them in the present shop I work in.

When you buy the body of the tool I think it's something like $100 to $150 dollars and the inserts are somewhere about $150 a box of 10. The body will last a long time (if you don't blow it up). So this breaks down to $15 per insert. The 1" uses three inserts that can be flipped, for you are basically using $7.50 per insert side x3 = $22.50.

The nice thing in the shop I work for, we use the same brand indexable from 2" to 7/8", all with the same insert. So we save our inserts that needed to be changed for finishing operations and use them when we are just roughing. In a sense, all of our roughing operations have no tooling costs because they are used and were basically paid for on our finishing operations.

The cool thing about the Seco is the "Speed Factor". Call a Carboloy Rep and ask about it. Right now I am running some toolpathes on a 1018 part at S5500 RPM and 150 inch/min. It's cool to see chips flying off like that with steel. Also, Carboloy has a 24 hr. tech line. You can call and ask questions for speeds and feeds.

Mike in MN

[CNC_BOB]

hi guys
just thought I would give my 2 cents worth here, we use mostly HITACHI high feed mills, in tool steel the 1 inch runs at about 3500 RPM and 280 IPM .02 DOC, I do like SECO CARBALOY but we do not have any high feed mills of theirs yet but I will be checking into that, I only use solid carbide where smooth finishes and tight tolerances are required, hope that helps

[dertsap]

Originally Posted by Ford25 Hello all! simple way to figure out max feeds and speed

your best bet is to get the manufacturers recommended speeds and feeds

[CNC_BOB]

I have many reps standing next to me giving me the parameters to plug in and the tool fails, the look on their face is priceless.

[fizzissist]

I've had the same experience.

A Sandvik rep even had the audacity to tell me that he likes the CNMG over the WNMG....gee. What a surprise...
For my applications I get 4 functional edges on a CNMG, but 6 on a WNMG. $2.25/edge vs. $1.83 for me, and I'm throwing away 4 perfectly good edges on the CNMG.

The box says 700-800sfm, but I'm finding that about 500sfm is far more realistic. With the rep standing there watching, his recommendation failed within about 6 parts. Back to my settings, I was getting 15 parts....which I thought should be at least 30.

On the flip side....the rep for tap maker Emuge gave me tap grade, feed and speed settings, and recommendations for an application that were stellar.

Factory recommendations per the catalog for DataFlute carbide end mills have been excellent. At least for me. I'm lovin' these endmills.

[dertsap]

for the most part it boils down to the application , I don't think I need to list the factors that need to be taken into consideration when choosing speeds and feeds , in general If a person sticks within the manufacturers specs then they are pretty much safe . I don't think it is the case of the companies giving speeds and feeds so that people can burn out the tools faster so they can sell more , if that were the case then people would say that the tools won't perform and they will look elsewhere . A company sells more tools when they last longer and or run faster and tool cost savings are evident ,regardless if the initial tool cost is more , that can be made back quickly on a quality tool , If I see a customer with a funky setup then I will call support at the factory or email pictures of the setup with as much technical info that I can provide . And they will do some number crunching and give me some solid numbers and any recommendations for the overall application . generally if the tool fails then I'm the guy who is willing to eat the cost , luckily so far I've only had to eat the cost once .
Most companies will want to prove that their tool will out perform the other guy and I'm sure some reps will get a bit unrealistic but then that may be the difference between a rep who is just a salesman by trade and a rep who is a machinist by trade .
I have to say that I've had the same experience in the past as well but the better experiences have out weighed the bad

[Ford25]

I really thank everyone for the replies! i'm tryin to soak up as much as i can, i've been machining for about 7 years for the Air Force. We don't have the opportunity to get very much training at all so everything we do we have to find out for ourselves, and alot of people are scared to try new things. I like to see chips fly and i like to try new things. and seeing all the talk about people's ipm feed at around 150-200 on steel is crazy but i wanna do it. people that i have been taught by are still using 5-6 ipm on steel and right now were running at 20 ipm and 1900spindle. any higher and the tool only lasts a couple parts.

[dertsap]

Originally Posted by Ford25 I like to see chips fly and i like to try new things. and seeing all the talk about people's ipm feed at around 150-200 on steel is crazy but i wanna do it. .

if you use solid carbides then variable flute end mills are the best for gaining high speeds and feeds take the CGS and Gorilla Mills that I carry , both are equaly great in my opinion http://cnctoybox.com/shop/category_7...aram=cid%3D%26 , heres some speeds for the Gorilla Mills under full slotting condition (full depth) they can be run quite aggressively , for example : Soft Steels (>25 Rc) 600sfm , Alloy Steels (4140 ) 300sfm , Stainless Steel (303) 250sfm , etc
with lighter cuts then a guy can do some tweaking to gain some more speed . I absolutely love these tools ,

YouTube - Gorilla End Mill Profiling and Slotting 1018 Steel

YouTube - Gorilla End Mill Profiling and Slotting 1018 Steel

[surfsup]

This depends on the type of cut as well. I usually don't run into many problems unless my type of cut is different from the "recommended" settings. But, I usually start with the OSG settings for whichever brand tool I am using (solid) and go from there. OSG has decent settings in their book and they also seem a tad on the conservative side.

[fizzissist]

Originally Posted by Ford25 I really thank everyone for the replies! i'm tryin to soak up as much as i can, i've been machining for about 7 years for the Air Force. We don't have the opportunity to get very much training at all so everything we do we have to find out for ourselves, and alot of people are scared to try new things. I like to see chips fly and i like to try new things. and seeing all the talk about people's ipm feed at around 150-200 on steel is crazy but i wanna do it. people that i have been taught by are still using 5-6 ipm on steel and right now were running at 20 ipm and 1900spindle. any higher and the tool only lasts a couple parts.

Us old dogs sometimes have a hard time learning new tricks...I ran into the same thing, and when I finally kicked up the speed to 250sfm and used close to the recommended chip load, I was running a 3 flute 3/8 carbide endmill at 3000rpm and 18ipm on 304SS with good results.
What's really hard to swallow is running dry gives better tool life.

The secret is that carbide will take the heat, and the material goes plastic, which is why you need the high SFM.

[neurosis]

15-5
700 sfm
1.25 axial
.05 radial

we cut this with a 1/2" diameter 5 flute helical variable pitch endmill.
5348 rpm 133ipm.

We were able to remove over 400 cubic inches of material before the endmills would fail.

YouTube - High speed machining 15-5 Stainless Steel

YouTube - High speed machining 15-5 Stainless Steel