Cut Recommendation

I am still getting my feet wet with my new torus pro and am having some teething pains with speeds/feeds. Having used Gwizard and hsmadvisor, I am still having no luck in getting the right recipe for my cut. With that said, can someone make a recommendation for me? I know these questions come up upteen million times on the forums, but I am not getting it right doing it myself.

I am essentially trying to pocket a 2" cube from 6065 using a .5" 2FL carbide mill .5" x 2 x 2 x 4 in an ER32 holder with 2.4" of stickout. I know this is a fairly ambitious cut but doubt I am blazing any trails here. Anyone have any recommendations on feed, speed, doc, woc? The chatter I am getting is horrendous. It is there in both helical plunging and during profiling.

Thanks

Hi,

2.4" stickout is quite long even for carbide. I sure hope flute is not as long. I would suggest checking what depth or cut HSMAdvisor is recommending and going with that.
There is "Performance" slider of the Speeds And Feeds Overrides panel. Move that to to about "x.5" or so.

Regarding speeds and feeds. Actually anything will do. Its aluminum, after all. I would go 5000 RPM and 30-50ipm feed rate.

Good luck.

The flute is 2". I assume the flutes reduce rigidity in that area of the tool is why you made that comment, correct? Maybe that is the issue.

I am not sure how well that aluminum machines. While 6061 is an easy aluminum to machine and the most common, you can sure have problems trying to machine 6063. I have done it, but with pretty poor results. My only half inch tool now is an insert cutter with a single flute. With that, you can dial in the perfect chip load rather easily. Take the tortoise feeds and speeds to start with. Once you get some time under your belt, you most likely will no longer need those programs to know what to use.

I agree with LeeWay. Start slow, and work your way up. I assume that your machine and software has the capability of adjusting the spindle speed and feed speed on the fly. You are just going to have to experiment until you find the right combination. Before long, you will just ''know'' what will work for your machine. In most materials I find on my machine that a chip load of about 0.001 to 0.004 seems to work the best. DOC and WOC are a function of your horsepower and machine rigidity.

I would also try HSS, or insert, tooling, or a different number of flutes. I have better luck with that. HSS is well-matched to the rigidity and power of the Torus Pro, especially with larger tools, where we have neither the RPM nor the rigidity, nor the power to get any real benefit from carbide. A 1/2" HSS 2-flute allows the maximum MRR the Torus Pro is capable of, for about 1/3-1/4 the cost of a comparable carbide tool. And, carbide is FAR easier to chip/damage, especially under conditions of chatter, interrupted cuts, or re-cutting of chips.

Chatter is a function of many things, including stiffness/rigidity of the tooling, the workpiece and the machine. Anything that changes the relative stiffness of one or more of these, or the vibrational frequencies generated in machining, will make a difference in chatter. So, you may find a 2-flute tool will work better than a 3-flute tool (I often find this to be the case). HSS may work better than carbide. If you're doing true HSM toolpaths, you can often get away with using a 4-flute tool where you might normally use a 2-flute tool. And, of course, very rigid fixturing is critical. Any or all of these can make a BIG difference, and the "recipe" may well be different for every setup.

Regards,
Ray L.

I've use a reduced shank 1/2" end mIll from yg-1 but I've read Melon makes a good one as well. The flute length is only 1/2" with around 3" of stick out. The shank of the tool is only reduced .04" to keep the tool stiffer, so you have to take light cuts, but you can move at a decent speed without chatter. I think ,(it's been a while) that I was running 80ipm at .012 -.015 stepover and worked really well. These specialty tools are $80 - $100 dollars depending on mfr.

One thing you can check that no one has mentioned yet is to check your tram. My tram was off just a bit and the chatter was awful. it is much worse once the tool gets long.

I would use a stub endmill to go as far as I can and then switch to the longer one. My machine chatters way more on 1/2 endmills than 3/8s. I use HSS tools. HSM is way nicer as well.

-Keith