Bohler W403 VMR Machining nitemare

[Odin]

We have 2 pieces of W403 VMR material that we are machining. It is pre heat treated to 44-46 Rc. I have been using a Iscar 1" Heli-Do up feed, feed mill to rough out the pockets. Been all over the place trying to get the feeds and speeds right. i've tried 200 sfm ,.02 " IPT and 0.020" D.O.C... no good! Tried 150sfm .015" IPT at 0.018" D.O.C.and all the way up to 350 SFM .028"IPT .025" DOC, and so on. I am having no luck at all.... Drilling this crap took an act of god. Anyone cut this stuff before? I usually Machine and drill prehardened H13 up 65 Rc... (Love cutting it) oh and the machine center that i am using is a Makino MCB1210 w/15k spindle. Went to Bohler site to get starting speeds and feeds and blew the inserts within 10 minutes.i Have never had this much problems. Any help would be appreciated! TIA,

[SledGeek]

We have 2 pieces of W403 VMR material that we are machining. It is pre heat treated to 44-46 Rc. I have been using a Iscar 1" Heli-Do up feed, feed mill to rough out the pockets. Been all over the place trying to get the feeds and speeds right. i've tried 200 sfm ,.02 " IPT and 0.020" D.O.C... no good! Tried 150sfm .015" IPT at 0.018" D.O.C.and all the way up to 350 SFM .028"IPT .025" DOC, and so on. I am having no luck at all.... Drilling this crap took an act of god. Anyone cut this stuff before? I usually Machine and drill prehardened H13 up 65 Rc... (Love cutting it) oh and the machine center that i am using is a Makino MCB1210 w/15k spindle. Went to Bohler site to get starting speeds and feeds and blew the inserts within 10 minutes.i Have never had this much problems. Any help would be appreciated! TIA,

 

I haven't used that particular steel, but we do use Vanadis, another Bohler steel. It's on their site. I'm using Sumitomo highfeed cutter (MS14020SR) with their acp200 grade with much success. 100ipm at 1400rpm. I'm up a bit high on sfm and low on feed....20hp 10000rpm wont do a .06 chip load. Dijet also has some god highfeed strong inserts.I've used that on tool steel, stainless(13-8),titanium and armor.

 

sumi metal slash

[Odin]

Thx Bill for the info... I went to a Mits AJX feed mill with inserts for stainless and hard to machine materials. I set the Feed at 78 IPM and the rpm @ 1900. We will see what that does. We had a Sumitomo Mill for testing but we sgave it back cause they couldnt give is the same deals as we get for our Iscar mills. I did like the Sumi though, it cot nice on hardened H13.

[jeff]

Would ceramic be a viable option? I've never cut that stuff so I don't really know how it machines, but from what you say I hope I never do! lol.

 

I agree with H13, that stuff cuts very nice.

[Odin]

Not sure if they want to buy new tools for this project. if it was up to me I'd cut a couple of trodes and get to burning.Its kinda like cutting the nastiest stainless steel that you have ever laid eyes on . lol it's horrible. Finally got one block roughed out after 2 days of testing different tools and speeds, feeds. Now to the finishing...! cant wait!!

[Odin]

I still hate this crap...