1/16 end mill in tough steel

[keen]

Hi all. - Ive not done much tiny cutter deep work in tool steel before and so I was relieved and impressed by Tormachs ability not to break a 1/16" carb cutter making tiny special 10 sided sockets in high tensile steel. I was a bit scared a stepper NC might be a bit unkind to tiny cutters at depth. - More confident now!

[RTP_Burnsville]

That is pretty nice work..... What sort of speeds and feeds do you use if you don't mind my asking. I just tried my first steel part this week and the results were not so nice.

Thanks,
Robert

[keen]

Hi Robert. Im converting from metric so rounding etc. Solid carb cutters. max S.climb roughed from hole with 3/32 profile cuts 0.035" deep F1.6 leaving
0.08" on sides. finished with 1/16 cutter - profle cuts 0.008" deep - F1.4 job took about 20 mins per socket.

[RTP_Burnsville]

Hi Keen,

Thanks for the information, I'll have to see how your rate compares to what I attempted. I believe my rate was much slower and the chip load much smaller. The other, and most likely bigger issue, is a need to order some much better endmills.

BTW: Would love to visit your country sometime, all the photos I see are amazing.

Robert

[keen]

Hi Robert - yes good cutters are more important in borderline operations. NZ is great for outdoors - but industry is pretty sparse....