Dura-Bar 65-4512

[Scott B]

any one cut or cutting this material? What kind of tooling are you using and speeds and feeds. Do you use coolant?

 

Thanks in advance for any help from the best forum on the web.

[?Mark]

Check here.

Never worked with it but looks like it should be very easy to machine.

 

hth

[Guest]

C'mon Scott, you can cut this stuff with a warm torch and a butter knife.

 

[Surface]

Scott, it's cast iron. There's a ton of free carbon in it, so it lubricates itself. That graphite does get everwhere. It will make a mess of your machine and turn everything black. If you rub your finger on a newly machined surface, your finger will be black.

It's nice to machine though, similar speeds/feeds as low carbon. Cut dry unless you want to throw away the coolant afterwards. If anything, you can push harder than CRS.

Unlike some cast iron, Durabar is pretty uniform. When I machined it, I didn't expereince any problems with tool life.

I was using TiCN and AlTiCN coated carbide. Both worked well.

If It helps to see it cut, I filmed a short video for my website when I was cutting those parts from the same alloy.

[chris m]

Scott; I have never run that grade, but we cut 80-55-06 and 120-90-02 all of the time here. Ductile Iron is harder on tools than grey iron but still not bad.

 

Are you turning or milling?

 

If milling or drilling I suggest TiAlN or TiCN coatings on carbide tools as we have had good success with that and running middle-of-the road surface speeds [120SFM or so for drilling and maybe 250 or so for profiling] to start. Inserted milling cutters will die a horrible death if you run coolant, solid carbide can survive.

 

We run Sandvik's 3205 inserts at around 550 for rough turning and 3215 at around 650 or 700 for finishing in 80-55-06, you could probably do better with your softer grade. Valenite has a grade VP1510 that I've tested a little and has good performance over 700SFM. If you have stable cutting conditions with a lot of stock removal or large diameters you can run ceramics at 1200 or 1500 SFM but edge security becomes an issue.

 

Feel free to email with any specific questions.

 

John is right about the coloring; the stuff will definitely turn your machine black. We had a big black spot on the wall behind a VMC that we used to rough mill 120-90-02 castings all day which would just not wash off after awhile.

 

C

[TKDBB]

Scotty,

 

Give B&H Pattern in Appleton, WI a call, ask for Jim. They cut that stuff literally day and night. Like others said, it's ductile iron. The 65-45-12 designation refers to it's tensile strength etc. It machines quite well dry.

[jeff]

It's nothing special, just that it's cast iron and it turns your hands black as hell for a few days.

Mildly abrasive though.

 

Enjoy!

[Scott B]

Thanks to all for the info.

Especially to Pink for the warm butter knife tooling. I'm having problems getting the butter knife to stay in my collet holder though.

 

Chris -Glad to see you and the monkey back