Cutter advice

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

I am looking for a two or three flute 3/4 insert endmill for roughing aluminum. I would prefer a .125 radius in the inserts. I have 10000 RPM max and would like to rough at 200 ipm or faster. I am hoping to be able to take .150 depth cuts using surface rough pocket or a surface high speed roughing path. Machine is a Fadal 4020 with a Fanuc 0I control. Can anyone reccomend a good insert cutter.

[YoDoug®]

Aluminum needs a lot of clearance for chip evacuation and thats hard to get on an insert mill that small in diameter. I normally use solid carbide for roughing aluminum in 3/4 diameter on under. We used these Iscar multimaster for 1/2 and 3/4 roughing of aluminum. No problem with 7500 rpm, .15 deep, 200 ipm in aluminum. Plus the cutting tips are only about $60-$80 versus $100+ for a solid carbide endmill that size.

 

http://www.iscar.com/Ecat/familyHDR.asp/fn.../type/1/lang/EN

[cunder]

I have had pretty good luck with Mitsubishi. We use the BAP3500 series.

[Nick Eaton]

In my exprerience Dapra cutters are the most free cutting insert cutters.

However as with everything in this game there is no free lunch. They don't ramp very well and have a 90 degree shoulder which causes problems when working a vertical wall higher than about 2/3 the insert hieght.

Drilling a hole to plunge into and conventional cutting on vertical walls (the inserts are so "up front" there is only about a 5% increse in tool pressure) will overcome these problems.

If you absolutely must ramp I too like the Mitsubishi cutters.....have used both with good success in different situations.

[Rstewart]

www.tools4aluminum.com

[doyleg]

Mitsubishi BXD4000 is also an excellent choice.

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm looking into all these suggestions

[GVM]

Look at AB tools also. I like their ShearHogs.

http://www.abtoolsinc.com/

There 3/4 tool is only a single insert, but check out their cutting data on this page;

http://www.abtoolsinc.com/Aluminum%20Milli...illingtests.htm

 

[ 10-29-2009, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: GVM ]

[Tim Johnson]

WE use OTM Here. (page 23)

 

For the 3/4" At .1875 deep we run at s9168 f220. I'm quite sure that we could easily kick up the speed and feed but the 3/4" doesn't get used much anymore.

[Tim Simmermon]

SGS S-Carb

 

At that RPM, you may not be able to run @ 200IPM, but you can definitely get deeper on teh DOC with this tool. We cut at .75" DOC @ 12000RPM @ 185 IPM

[Joe788]

Justin, is there any particular reason you want an inserted cutter? In sizes 1.0 and below, solid cutters work much better than indexables. Once you get up to 1.5, 2.0, or 3.0, the Mitsubishi BXD or the "Ripper Mill" are outstanding choices.

 

http://www.tools4aluminum.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=22

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

The only reason I wanted the inserted cutter was because I thought I read something on here a while back about insert mills cutting aluminum very fast. We use all mitsubishi insert mills and face mills 1" diameter and up. They work very well but there is always a possibility that there is something better out there. I have never pushed a mitsubishi to 200 inches a minute because most of the parts we make do not require that fast of a feed rate do to thier size. I have a rather large part 36 inches long that has a lot of detail to it. I wanted to rough it out leaving minimal material to finish as fast as possible. We use Destiny Tool Viper endmills here on a regular basis but I have found that the bullnose do not rough very well. We also use powdered metal three flute roughing endmills with much success. I have a recomended cutter from our mitsubish rep. I cant remember the exact model but I am thinking of trying it. By the way the inserts in "The Ripper look exactly like the inserts in the mitsubishi's we use

[Chris Rizzo]

It's funny you ask 10 people you'll get 10 different answers.

 

m2c, the Misubishi bxd is a great performer. I've found with it the d.o.c. performance seems to be releated to spindle rigidity and drawbar pull. Haas machines don't have much, too deep and I'll get some chatter/harmonics/barking. .150 should be ok. From my experience at least. On a good machine 300ipm at .100 is no problem.

 

What's a solid carbide 3/4 Destiny cutter, around 100-125+$ ? A bxd is around 275-300$ish and you'll have it for life. Plus you can change corner radius. Oh, get it in a shrink holder too.

[jeff]

Mistubishi is what I use for Aluminum.

Bad A$$ cutters!

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

I have a rep who is going to let me try a Sandvick insert mill. He says it will handle 200ipm at .150 doc. I'll give it a try if that does not work the SGS Scarb endmill looks good in the video.

[The_kid]

I've used just a standard MA ford 3 flute with huge sucess. They're fairly cheap and effective. I'd use one for roughing and a second just for finishing.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I'll weigh in with the 20th opinion (please don't try to burn me at the stake for heresy)... Destiny Python 5 Flute. (YES 5 FLUTES IN ALUMINUM! )

 

DOC up to 2" (on your machine) @ 10% Radial Engagement... 9935 RPM, 580 IPM (at 58 cubes). If you're worried about your spindle, go like 7% Steopver @ 9455 RPM and 707 IPM.

 

JM2CFWIW