Roughing end mill for steel

[Bob W.]

I am currently roughing some large steel parts with a 1/2" end mill and 1" depth of cut. The chips are coming off pretty long and they are clogging up the chip conveyor. Is there a good roughing end mill for steel with an interrupted flute to keep the chips smaller so they don't clog things up? I am using 2D HST core roughing toolpaths. This is a production job and I need a roughing solution. Ideally it would be an indexable end mill with a long length of cut that would work well for HST toolpaths. I tried a high feed indexable tool from Sandvic and it didn't work out well at all for my application.

 

Thanks,

Bob

[Newbeeee™]

Bob - Just seen a flyer for WNT - Monstermill. Looks very impressive and it has fine pitch knuckle (corn cob) flutes so should mince meat your swarf.

If you try and it works, please let me know

[gcode]

Technology sure has changed.

The problem here isn't tool life, bad parts or inconsistent results.

The problem is making chips so fast the chip conveyor can't deal with it. LOL

That's a good problem to have.

 

My experience with chips produced by roughing endmills is that they are difficult to deal with too.

They are very dense like heavy sand and create their own issues

 

I'm wondering is a hi helix end mill might produce a shorter chip??

[cincy k]

Take a look a Helical Solutions. They make a HXVR end mill for this reason. http://www.1helical.com/

[Bob W.]

Technology sure has changed.

The problem here isn't tool life, bad parts or inconsistent results.

The problem is making chips so fast the chip conveyor can't deal with it. LOL

That's a good problem to have.

 

My experience with chips produced by roughing endmills is that they are difficult to deal with too.

They are very dense like heavy sand and create their own issues

 

I'm wondering is a hi helix end mill might produce a shorter chip??

 

This is on a vertical mill with dual chip augers. The problem is the long chips form a mat over the trough that the auger sits in so they don't get run out of the machine. After every cycle I spend 10 minutes clearing these chips and it is a real pain. When I was running the high feed cutter the chips were much smaller and they were cleared just fine.

[GoetzInd]

I know how you feel Bob, We have this same problem using the dynamic paths. Wish all our mill had conveyors not crappy little augers.

 

Mike

[Eric@HorsepowerInc.]

http://www.iscar.com/eCatalog/Family.aspx?fnum=2209&mapp=ML&app=57&GFSTYP=M

 

I've never used them, but maybe worth looking at. Seems to be what you are looking for.

[djstedman]

Yeah, I was going to mention the Iscar Finishshred endmills.. they are supposed to break the chip.. never tried them myself either though..

 

I had this same problem on some large forgings where the machine just couldn't get rid of chips fast enough.. I ended up changing strategies to a High Feed Style mill which changed the chip geometry (and threw them farther) and never had to look back.. so yeah I never really solved the problem.. I just punted..

[RaiderX]

Might want to try Helical HST-C-SR-30500-R-0

has chip breakers

[Aaron Eberhard]

I've had some great luck personally with the Iscar Solidshreds in stainless, but their normal "chatter free" cutters worked great in regular. I know Sandvik has an equivalent, but the shop I was helping out at was an Iscar place, so I haven't tried them, although I'd love to.

 

Unfortunately, I haven't played too much with a lot of their insert stuff, except by proxy..

[Mike@Dive Lab Inc.]

I recently used a Guhring RF series variable 1/2" x 1-1/4 loc rougher in316 stainless. It really broke the chips up nice. I was running full DOC with .04 step with a dynamic core mill. Couldn't quite get to the recommended speeds.

[BenK]

Helical makes a variable pitch endmill with small notches in the flutes to break up the chip. Page 59