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Replace Solid Carbide end mills with Indexable inserts


BradyCNC
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/replace-solid-carbide-end-mills-indexable-inserts-really-mitchell

 

Has anyone made the switch? What are the benefits? It is something I've been thinking about pitching at my shop but I'm curious if anyone else is mainly using inserts and what your experience has been like. We're Tool & Die so I'm unsure if its the best call for us. 

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All things being equal, inserts are cheaper.

Even if you pull solid carbide before you get any chipping there is a limit to the number of regrinds you will get. Then you throw away a sizeable (relative) chunk of carbide.

With inserts you don't throw away so much, and you get several (at least) new edges before you throw it away.

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1 hour ago, AMCNitro said:

IF you ruin an indexable you're not out of pocket for just the inserts...

True, but if you crash a solid carbide tool you are out a big chunk of carbide.

Inserts are generally used for larger sizes, with good quality 3/4 inch (probably in the lower diameter range for insert substitution) standard length carbide tools running $250 - 300, it might not be as lopsided as you might think.

Always best to do a quick cost analysis. Not forgetting the cost of the regrinds of course.

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There are other considerations:

If you are using dynamic toolpaths, you typically won't be able to match the material removal rate (MRR) that you can get with solid carbide end mills.  This is because You can use the flute length and use more of the LOC of the solid end mills.  Also, you typically have more flutes with solid carbide.  (if you are taking .006 per tooth for an end mill but only have 3 flutes for an indexable and 6 flutes for a solid carbide end mill of the same diameter, the solid end mill will double your productivity even before you take advantage of the length of cut.  

 

As an experiment, you could define a pocket and program it with solid carbide using the best parameters for a dynamic toolath and then try to machine the same pocket with the best parameters for an indexable end mill.  If you do all of the calculations taking into consideration of the time savings, the indexable end mills may not be saving you money. 

 

Indexable tools can be great for the proper application

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1 hour ago, Bill Craven said:

There are other considerations:

Hence the need to do a cost analysis.

Any hard metal part bigger than 9 or 12 inches would almost certainly be more cost effective than solid carbide.

And yes, using all the flute length in solid carbide can get you some easily bough MMR, But I have machined Titanium with inserts at .013 chipload and 16-18 cubes (45 HP dual winding spindle motor).

Good luck with solid carbide.

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I think the Solid shank replaceable heads is where the real benefits come into play. Inserted replaceable head tools not sure I agree there is a real cost savings. Problem I have it I don't sit down and get price per tool to start doing ROI comparisons. The replaced head tools are great in a production environment where I want to reduce tool length variance and get repeatable tool lengths without having to complicate the change out process. I have gone as far as not use the integral shank bodies and shrink in a carbide body into a shrink holder for the replaceable head to get more rigidity over the standard integrated replaceable head bodies. Shouldn't matter is what I was originally thinking until I was forced into going this route on a KM4X63 Spindle from Kennametal. They don't offer that in that holder and I wanted to go with the replaceable head tools for a 10 year running project. I shrink in the carbide shank into Shrink body and was impressed with how nice everything was running. Had a different project going on different machine with the same head, but integrated body to hold the replaceable head tool. I thought what is the leak link here. High Speed Steel body to a carbide Head. Wonder if the carbide shank in the Shrink body is more rigid? Logically it makes sense so I ordered that setup for the CAT50 machine it was running on. Night and Day difference cutting Titanium. We were getting about 1-1/2 hours of tool life using the integrated CAT50 body with the change over to shrink and a solid body inside of the shrink we went to over 6 hours. I have also tested this in a Hydraulic Holder and impressive tool life holding the Solid Carbide body. You can get the Haimer Reverse Locking spiral now in some Hydraulic Sleeves. 

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1 hour ago, nickbe10 said:

Hence the need to do a cost analysis.

Exactly.  

So many factors:  Size of part, the size and shape of the feature and the type of toolpath that you can apply to it, hp and rigidity of the machiine, and Material.

I love when I can use a high feed indexable mills.  

My experiences with Titanium have shown me that Ti has a very narrow window for it's sweet spot.  Rigidity is crucial to getting good results.  

A customer modified a machine by adding 2 extra linear guide bearings for each axis and then changed out the ball screws from 1 inch diameter to 2 inch diameter and doubling the hp of the servo motors.  He was able to almost double the MMR.

 

When I program parts, i want predictable results.  I want to know what I can expect the tool life for inserts or solid carbide will be and be able to program a tool inspection.

I love pushing tools to the max.  I have noticed over the years that when you go to IMTS or other tool shows and they have demos going, when someone starts making a heavy cut, everybody turns and goes over to look at it.   

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