4 replies to this topic

[danielm]

18 year programmer is finally getting into HEM.  

I've been reading about it here and it looks like the 2D Dynamic toolpaths are where I need to start.  Can you HEM pros recommend some good tutorial resources that will school me on chip thinning, HSM, HFM...all that good stuff?  

I'm going to be cutting 4330M steel thats annealed to 33RC max.  **See pics.  One pic shows the stock and the other two show the slot after machining.  I thinking a 5/8 or 3/4 Hanita Varimill to do most of the work.  I've seen chip breaker end mills here too.  Do these work well for this sort of thing?

[Brandon Renwick]

i would use a seco high feed mill and a optirest path to rough the slot and use a 5flt vari mill for the strait walls and a vari ball mill to surface the large arc

[Brandon Renwick]

more specifically a seco tool body r217.21-01.00-0-R125.2HA and insert 218.19-125T-T3-M07 t350m, could use ms2500 grade is machine is rigid, and i usually use air not coolant  i just did a job,  4340steel 30-32rc worked great, it will run 850sfm@.03ipt to 450sfm@.06ipt (its a little scary at the lower sfm but it really holds up well if u have a rigid machine) .03 doc for both with a 78% stepover on optirough/rest path

if you do use the dynamic style and a vari to rough , make sure the tool runout is in the tenths, and you have a pretty good supply of air to get the chips out because theres going to be a crap load of them when you start roughing that pocket, ive found that this method usually breaks flutes because of chips jamming up when you start a deep pocket, only solution that works reliably are the endmills from swiftcarb that have a hole thru the center so u can blast air or coolant from the tip of the tool

[danielm]

brandou10l, on 20 June 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

more specifically a seco tool body r217.21-01.00-0-R125.2HA and insert 218.19-125T-T3-M07 t350m, could use ms2500 grade is machine is rigid, and i usually use air not coolant  i just did a job,  4340steel 30-32rc worked great, it will run 850sfm@.03ipt to 450sfm@.06ipt (its a little scary at the lower sfm but it really holds up well if u have a rigid machine) .03 doc for both with a 78% stepover on optirough/rest path

if you do use the dynamic style and a vari to rough , make sure the tool runout is in the tenths, and you have a pretty good supply of air to get the chips out because theres going to be a crap load of them when you start roughing that pocket, ive found that this method usually breaks flutes because of chips jamming up when you start a deep pocket, only solution that works reliably are the endmills from swiftcarb that have a hole thru the center so u can blast air or coolant from the tip of the tool

Thanks Branou101.  I'm still new at the place I'm at.  All of the insert cutters that I've seen are Kennemetal.  I'm planning on roughing the slot part way down then drilling out the xs with a 1.5"dia insert drill.  

I'd like to try a few different toolpaths in mcam just to see what they're like.  I could really use some tuts on the more popular HSM toolpaths and best preactices.

[Brandon Renwick]

if you want to save that file to the ftp and ill toolpath it for you so you have a example to go off, it probly would only take like 15-20min for me to do