fiberglass reinforced plastic parts

[MATT Q]

Anybody machining fiberglass reinforced ABS parts out there? What are you using for tooling to cut this nasty stuff any tips?

[Tim Johnson]

Coat ALL of your tools with diamond . Look under coating offerings in the last column.

[Camdude®]

We have had really good luck with CVD tooling.

i think they are located in London, Ontario.

[wildcat99]

I don't know about ABS, but have cut plenty of other fiberglass reinforced parts. Solid carbide, maybe a diamond-cut burr. Diamond coating like Tim said is even better.

 

Onsrud Cutter can get you started with the right cutters. They have some new diamond coated tools also.

[crazy^millman]

No problem use to cut 30% all the time with standard carbide. Does get dull after a little while but the 10 times cost of diamond I can get by with Carbide. Need to watch the fuzz factor as I call it. For this I would look at SLS and be done with it. If they want a machineable strong gladd filled I would look at Glass filled polycarbonate much more ocntrol on the surface finish and use to make some lasrer parts for it worked great.

 

HTH

[John13]

I use solid carbide with decent wear in a lot of glass filled material. We machine a lot of Ultem 2300 with solid carbide with different coatings TiN and TiCN and such with good luck. Try a few different cutters and see what gives you the best wear.

[Roger Peterson]

Matt, how's Kansas treating you?

 

I cut a fair amount of glass filled plastics, mostly nylon but some ABS years ago. Keep your rpms fairly low, if you're rubbin the cutter they dull quick. There was one coating in particular that lasted a lot longer than the rest, unfortunately I don't remember which one. If you have a bit of a production run pick one of your cutters and try different coatings, one of them will last almost twice as long as the others. Maybe someone else can give you better info.

 

 

later,

[MATT Q]

Thanks guys I was leaning towards the solid carbide but didn't know what to coat with. Kansas is great good to be back by family and warmer weather.