Hard milling

[DG]

Looks like you opened the door with the spread sheets,John. Now I have to ask the forum if anyone has had better luck in managing the life of their tools as it seems nuts that you can only get a few hours from each roughing tool.

[HevyMetl]

Tools are cheap when lead time is the delivery is ctitical. I would say 45 mins to and hour for a roughing tool is acceptable. Toolpaths are also critical and the new area and core roughing options are already providing increased tool life. The machine runs faster as well since the paths are more fluid.

 

What kind of machine and tooling are you running these toolpaths on? That will make a huge difference as well.

[DG]

I'm running a MIKRON VCP 600 with 42000 rpm. Using Robbjack tools just now. They have a pretty nifty speed and feed calculator at their web site. Check it out when you have time. Be sure to use the die mold tab to select hardened steels. Their speeds seem a little less agressive then some of the other libraries and I am wondering what that will translate to tool life. I ran a .1875 2 flute at .010 doc and .006 step at 14000 rpm and the tool does'nt look or cut like it took much of a beating. It ran for a little over two hours.?? Lot's of questions?????

[DG]

This is all new to me as we have all ways edm'ed our dies and small molds. Mostly small detailed stuff. I guess I am spoiled with my tooling as I have tools down to .015 standard ball mills and smaller stuff I've made that has been in use over 9 months without wearing out or breaking. That's in Alum and brass though. So you can see where 2 hours tool life is a little startling at first. But as you said time is money, and if I compare the tooling costs to time and labor saved by convential processes the scales will tip. But I'm a stuborn bast* and I will look for some happy mediums to give me a little more life. Maybe enough time to finish one set of dies.4-5 hours.

[Chipmakr]

Try the Jabro JH170 line of endmills from Tesco. We have had excellent results our VCP 1000 and VCP 600 roughing with these tools.

 

[email protected]

[Hardmill]

Yo hevy if ya want send them to me and i'll put them on my site. So the boys can grab them at will.

DG stick wih the robbjack, cant beat em for roughing.

Tesco are much more accurate from tool to tool when

you need good repeatability. Getting into hard milling

one thing your going to find is the need for a good

arsenal of tools, three to four brands that cut specific

features and stick with them.

 

 

PEACE

[HevyMetl]

+1 to Chipmakr. These things roll the pretties blue slightly twisted chips you ever saw. I brought the guys over from the Model shop next door the first time I ran it and amazed the crap outa them. The truley amazing thing is the spindle load stays so low on that heavy of a cut.

[HevyMetl]

Hardmill,

 

Have you tried the 170 series from Tesco? How do they compare to the RobbJack? I have never ran a Robbjack and would like your first hand expeirence.

 

Thanks

[HevyMetl]

I need to make a clarification. The Makino spreadsheet is for 2FLUTE BALL MILLS only. I tend to use the suppliers recommendations on Flat and Bull mills, and push it from there.

[Hardmill]

OK just click on the Makino link here.

 

PEACE

[DG]

You guys are the best, really. All of you. Thank you so much for sharing your time and knowledge with me and all the rest who will learn from these posts. Only hope someday I can pay it forward. You guys inspire me.

[Steve at JPI]

I will also be venturing into hard milling Monday morning. Any chance I could get that Makino spreadsheet?

 

Any quick tips on my A-2 Rc58 part? I need to take .020 off a flat surface(am planning on using a 1/2" SGS V-Carb) and .020 from the sides of an open pocket with straight sides and a .188 inside corner rad. I'll be using a 3/8" ball for that one. Both tools have TiAln coating. Basically, my part looks like a "box canyon".

 

I'm looking for the basics on surface footage and depth of cut and how much side cut to take per pass.

 

Thanks in advance

[Hardmill]

Check the downloads page on my website.

I'll try to get back to you later with some specifics

for you milling app.

 

 

PEACE

[valus]

HevyMetl,

Could you please email me the Makino and Tesco speadsheets also?

Thank you very much!

[HevyMetl]

Valus,

 

Hardmill has them on his website now. It will save us from bumping e-mails. If you can't download them e-mail me at

johnjoyceb(at)yahoo.com

[Steve at JPI]

Thanks Hardmill

 

The Robb Jack calculator is also pretty useful.

 

Go to Robbjack.com and then you have to sign up with a user name, blah, blah, blah....

[Micromoldmaker]

HevMetl:Can you email me a copy of you spreadsheet? I'd be very grateful.