I found the price tag feature. So we're using v9

Are you cutting polyethylene tubes used for routing, or are you trying to route tubes to cool this thing? Carbide tools go up to heat well. It has to be cut medically clean? It can't be cut, cleaned in say liqui-nox, autoclaved, and/or gamma irradiated? If its a bulky enough part you could try putting it in a very cold freezer or in liquid nitrogen for a while to start it off cold. Mist with chilled DI water? Run at slower speed? Depends on what you're doing. I had a job before cutting thin polypropylene tubes, bout 5/8 OD and .06 wall. Keeping the items "medically clean" was keen to the buyer and seeing as the full production run will be 200-300 of these, I guess they didn't want to clean and gamma all of them. Wound up using a special plastic-cutting tool from Harvey Tools combined with a blast of gaseous N2 on the part, and it cut pretty clean.

+1 to plugging your holes. Something we havent done...and its a pain to go back with a dental pick and clean the things out.

Ooooh, don't drill into the table. As has been said, thick plate of Aluminum sub plate will do the job well. Bolt it on and leave it on. We have two or three sets of 1/2-13 holes drilled and tapped for vises and our 4th axis, and then a 1x1 grid of 1/4-20. Hasn't corroded in 6 years of continuous use. Easy to drill and tap, easy to resurface with a fly cutter if it gets some muck on it or you dig into it a little bit.

I've tried on a couple computers now and none of them have the right codec for the "mastercam video converted file". What did you use to encode it? That Haas video looks just like some simple contouring..

Got a 21 tool ATC Fadal and my tools stay dialed in Can you give me the approximate length of one of your toolholders (from the flange down to the bottom of it, NOT including the tool length)? Maybe T197? From there you can extrapolate what kind of temperature change you'd need to cause that, see if it matches up with what the shop normally goes through. The thing about the machine on your "hot" side of the shop...the issue of thermal expansion isn't really a question of the absolute value of how hot something gets, but the relative difference and cycling it goes through during the day. If it STAYS hot and close to the same temperature all the time, since there is no temperature difference, things won't change. It would be nice if you could track a few tool's length offsets over the course of a typical day, or a couple typical days. Make a little chart. See if it's consistent over time (short in the morning and night when its cool and/or not running, long mid-day and mid operation), and from tool to tool (all tools growing and shrinking). Then you could narrow things down to this being a heat problem or something else (ie, we've been barking up the wrong tree). Maybe its just a disgruntled employee messin with ya

Irrelevant what the units are.

I just stick the thing on a Hardinge and face the thing off.

If you're machining Aluminum that 6000 rpm spindle is gonna be holdin you back.

1 Fadal 3016 1 Bridgeport tracker (2-axis) Its all we got

I'd think this would be heavily influenced by whatever machine tool you have. Unless you have a high end machine and your circular interpolation is outstanding, that close of a diameter (and thus form) tolerance would require a boring head. Like John was saying any lower end machine might just not be able to cut it (no pun) by just arcs/helixes.

I should add with the Maxim VHP apparently in the 6 years we've had our Fadal the coolant has only been totally changed out once. No smell, no corrosion (provided its kept at the right mix), no slime, no skin irritation. Like Gary though defin gotta keep adding water to keep it at the right mix with the CO atmosphere.

Have yet to get into the senior level classes dealing on the mechanics of forgings. But i'd think that its essentially the same as roll forming something. You create plastic flow around the edge of a material. And yea, that's great. Makes for a strong durable part. But on something like a piston where you need a very precise fit, aren't you machining away that outer surface anwyway?

What benefits oes this 2618 have over other alloys?

Why do you NEED forged aluminum?

Hmm 2618, haven't heard of that. Nor 2168. Might have to look into that for a project of mine. Ok looked on Matweb. 2168 doesn't exist, I guess its a typo. 2618 looks pretty similar to 2124. Same fatigue strength. 2124 is better for overall yield stress. CTE is same for both. I guess the question is how their strength is impacted by heat and that you'd have to look up elsewhere. 2618 seems like a real oddball alloy though and I'd imagine you might have some difficulty getting something. 2124 isn't overly common (not as much as 2024) but you should be able to come accross some.

Not sure what a "hy-po" engine is, but... You'd want something with a high yield stress I'd imagine...which brings us to the 2xxx and 7xxx series. Also needs to retain that strength at temperature, so that leaves us with 2xxx. And probably good fatigue properties and controlled fracture toughness... 2124-T8 That's just my suggestion though. Make sure all its properties meet your design points. If temperature isn't a big issue but you still want high yield stress and good fatigue and fracture properties, 7475 is another option.

Sounds like you might have a similar spot as me.. I'm an engineering student, been doing the Mastercam thing for about a year now. 2, 3, and 4 axis mill programming in addition to manual stuff. Set up the stock and tools, run the machine. Work with aluminum, mild steel, stainless steel, engineering plastics, and within the next week I'll be getting into some Invar. Parts always come out nice. $12.50/hr here.

If you're really used to MasterCAM you can use Solids to actually design parts and I guess its easier to visualize stuff. Personally I don't use MasterCAM to design anything, unless its some really simple soft jaw or plate or what have you. I'm just way more fluent with Solidworks and Inventor.

Don't fall for the smoke and mirrors! X is vaporware!!11

Boooyakasha

Maxim VHP here. We run a lot of Aluminum, Ultem, Polycarbonate, some steel. No problems.

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll be contacting some local places this week. At the moment the type of feed/speed I've been running in aluminum, as was taught to me, is on the order of 4000RPM, 22IPM, .180 AxDOC, .100 RadDOC for a .375 45deg helix 2 flute carbide, TiN coated EM. I'm sure even on a Fadal I can be running a much higher MRR. Unfortunately our spindle only goes up to 7500rpm.

Hmm. Definately time to start calling up Shop Tools et all. No way I'm going to spend $80 on a .375 and $100 on a .500 ski-carb from MSC. And Jim that's a damn good idea!

Been reading through old threads with regard to killer tools. Sounds like those Hanita Varimills are badass and put everything else to shame. And all those feed mills and what not I'm sure are a sight to see. I'm only running a Fadal 3016 though. 95% of what we run is alloy aluminum (6061, 7075, 2024) and Ultem 1000, with the remainder of the work being some oddball 304, 316, and 416 SS. I also do side work on a Formula SAE car, bout half and half alloy aluminum and 4130 steel. So I'd like to look into some good tooling (OSG blizzard EMs?) that will get the job done well on our machine, but at the same time I don't think its necessary to go all-out and buy really expensive tools designed for blowing through hardened steel on a 50 taper. Anyone in the same boat got any suggestions?