6061 T6 Aluminum

[wildcat99]

I am working on my first aluminum mold piece...a very simple "boss" with large radii and very little detail. Will be using a 1/2-in ball nose, 2-flute cutter. This will be straight up and down 3-axis surfacing on a medium-duty Quintax router.

 

I am planning on removing .125-in of material max and .060 for the finish pass. Does this seem reasonable? What would you recommend as a starting point for speed and feed?

 

MasterCam calculates Feed 19.6, Plunge and Retract 9.8 and Spindle Speed 3056.

This seems SLOW.

 

I'll take any suggestions, please.

[cadcam]

I would not use a .06 finish I recommend more like .005 to .02 or the tool will be owrking alot harder and with the smaller amount you can move faster to.

 

JM2C

[Keith Graydon]

double it.

light finish as per jay (aka cadcam)lotsa coolant, kinda gummy.

 

hth

-klg

[Jim Whipple]

When I rough surfaces in alum I usually run 6000 rpm....it's all I got! then figure .005 per flute from there. I have a little haas so .1 depth for rough is about it for my machine but it'll do 100ipm and I finish with .005 or so depth of cut at as much feed as the ball screws will do

Jim

[Tony]

Aluminum Molds...

I am starting to see a few myself these day's.

After the Part gets the go ahead,I Machine pockets into the A & B and Fit P-20 inserts in.

and do it all over again.

Beat that Lead Time, O.S.G.!

[wildcat99]

Thanks for the quick replies!

 

I failed to mention: no coolant here on our machine.

 

However, I'm leaning towards:

Rough passes of .125 max at 40ipm and 6000 rpm.

Finish passes of .020 at 80-100 ipm and 6000rpm.

 

quote:

---

O.S.G.!

---

???

[Keith Graydon]

use an air gun then. You dont want those chips packing. They will do it very fast in 6061

 

-KLG

[BernieT]

A mist or spray works good. Or stand there and shoot WD-40 every few seconds. (Hope you have ventilation - lots of smoke.)

 

BerTau

[Tony]

O.S.G.

A phrase I picked up Here on this Board.

Off Shore Garbage

[Roger Peterson]

NO COOLANT???

 

Do whatever you have to do to get at least a mist coolant system. It will save you many headaches.

 

[ 11-13-2002, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: Roger ]

[Elad]

It's a problem to work in aluminum without coolant.as strong is your coolant on the tool,you can work faster.

I use the new solid end mills of iscar,3 flutes to cut aluminum.

even with a slow spindle like you have,you can still cut quite fast.

with 4000 rpm i cut at a speed of 1000-1200 mm/minute.

you must work with a ball end-mill for the rough cutting??why 2 flutes??use 3 flutes.do you use a carbide tool??

get cooland.there are manual intruments for coolant and they don't cost too much.

Anyway,forget cutting fast without coolant!the chips will stick like a gum and then-bye bye tool!

[Trevor Bailey]

I cut aluminum dry all the time on my Fadal. I have the coolant lines hooked up to blow air only and it works OK. Nothing beats coolant, but sometime you just can't use it. I do all types of cutting, 2d & 3d for fixturing. Your depth of cuts for that roughing tools size is going to snap without some type of lubrication. I suggest WD40 or Mineral Oil. The mineral oil smells better. Also check Hanita's line of coated carbide tooling. I have great success with them without a lot of build up.

 

When I am surfacing with a small tool, say around .125 ball, I will go 6 to 8000 rpm, feed of 80 - 120 depending on if the tool will be buring into corners or not and about .05 depth of cut. For finishing with that same cutter, the rpm should work for you if that is all you have, but having a router, I would think the rpm's could be kicked up quite a bit. The feed depends on your machine and surface quality you want to end up with. We all know Fadal's and quality, but I will take the same cutter at a feed of 150 ipm and come away with a pretty good looking part. This also depends on the type of toolpath you will use.

 

Bottom line is, push it until it breaks and then back off 20%

[MetalMarvels]

You absolutely need something for coolant/chip flush (air blast/mist or full flood) because the chips will build on the tool edges in a heart-beat and will turn your tool into an aluminum lollipop.

 

I prefer using a radius-tip tool, as stubby as I can get away, with for ripping stock off in a hurry (DuraMill or MA Ford) before switching to the ball tool to finish. I also typically run the gain up on the servos on the finish pass.

[wildcat99]

I will be using a solid carbide 1/2-in ball nose for everything on this part.

 

Also, I've got up to 800ipm and 20000rpm to work with on our router.

[Jim Whipple]

There's a compressed air jet coolant thing called a cold shot (I think) ...I wonder if you could hool one up to yur router???

Just a thought

Jim

[Tony]

I use Flood for Roughing,

And straight air for light finish passes

 

I wouldnt go past 10,000 R.P.M.

without Balanced tooling

[Trevor Bailey]

Those cold sir guns work great.

 

Crank up the rpm's and start with your speeds/feeds/depths to get your feet wet. They are pretty conservative, but you break anything using a tool that size. Keep increasing the speed/feed ratio by at least 20% until you get a comfortable, extremely fast cut time going. From what I understand, Quintax are pretty good metal cutting machines. I have heard good things about the 5 axis stuff.

 

As long as you crank up the rpm's and some how use a constant air blast on the tools, you want have any problem's. I would love to have a machine like that just to play with and see how fast I could drive it. Of course, I would not do that with one in my own shot.

[Rusty Spark]

Boy O Boy,

 

Just take your pick ENE MENE MINe MO Witch should you choose. I've cut plenty of alum molds never 6061 unless it was a vacuum form mold, mostly injection molds. We would rough with a 3flt Iscar .750 dia. .125 deep 250 ipm 4000 rpm with air blow. Make sure chips are flying. Finish with your ball cutter use flood.

 

Have fun and play with your feeds, every machine has its own sweet spot,

(feed,rpm,holder,spindle,fixture,control) are all factors in high feed rates.

[Tony]

MR.Sall,

Myself,Born and Raised in Elk Grove Village.

Use EROWA for all EDM electrode holding.

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