thread milling cutters

[El Scotthead]

Hey everybody,

 

I do a lot of orbital threading on our sink edm. Trouble is, the electrodes are salty. So I got thinking, what about making my own electrodes with threadmill? The boss won't approve spending for a threadmill to play with(there is NO spending right now ).

 

What about wiring the thread form into a carbide blank? Has anyone tried this, and have you had any luck? I'm gonna play around with it in my spare time, but any extra input would be greatly appreciated.

[Kannon]

El Scotthead,

Do you have a cnc lathe? I do all my threaded electrodes on ours. I first sink a hole to the minor diameter on the sinker then make electrodes on the cnc lathe, making sure the threaded electrode is undersized far enough to fit down the hole (just smaller then the minor and then orbiting it out the major dia.

Works great for us!

 

Good Luck,

Brian

[El Scotthead]

Brian,

 

No cnc lathe , only a cnc mill. I have thread burning down to a science. I just wish we had a good way to make trodes ourselves, especially for the wierd non-standard threads that mold in one of our molds. They're kinda between metric and unified, but they're not like any standard threads. Those electrodes are really expensive and the lead time on them has been as much as six weels(why??? ).

[crazy^millman]

Well do what you can to con vince him that he is only hurting himself by not getting a single point thread mill in which to make your electrodes with. I would look at HarveyTool and get one diamond coated should last a very long time and you could make them on the CNC mill. You do make your own electrodes on the mill right if so then he is wasting if not throwing money and time away by not making them in-house.

 

HTH

[Kannon]

I agree with Crazy^Millman,

If it is a problem with cost, and lead time is so long, why not put together a cost savings to show the boss how fast it would pay for itself if you had one. Many times the initial cost scares them until they see how much money they can save in the long run. Also your turnaround time would be much faster making everybody happy.

 

Good Luck,

Brian

[Aaron AKA. Zippy]

El Scotthead

 

I have taken a standerd indexable lathe threading bar and spun it in a tool holder to do odd ball or realy long threads a few times. You only have one flute so it kind of slow, and you need to make sure that the insert sticks out past the dia. of the bar. Ecentric ground bars like Micro100 won't work. It's goten me out of a jam here n' there.

 

Zippy

[El Scotthead]

well guys,

 

thanks for the response. The boss won't budge on this issue. As soon as a customer actually needs some threads burned, though, I will be getting a threadmill and trying it out.

 

Zippy,

 

I hadn't thought of using a lathe bar. I'll hafta see if we even have one that will work and play with that also.

[JAMES GABEL]

I use a thrad mill on my cnc mill and cut the threads in the heat treated steel. I can cut a thrad in a block in about ten minutes. Programming it takes about ten minutes and I got a great threaded hole. The thread mills cost alot but it is worth it in the long run.