[Cheysay32]

Trying to adjust the speed/feed/SFM on a Smithy Talon 1315 machining heat treated cast aluminum rods. I turning them down to 1." and 1.125" diameter for the two sizes required. Coolant set on flood. I am cutting them into .170 thick plugs for welding. I'm using, don't know the part number, a .07 wide squared cut off tool.The machine maxes out at 3000-3500rpm. I started off with Max 1500rpms SFM 200 and F.003. this was perfect.

In the beginning it was evacuating with small chips. ideally what I was hoping for. Now I'm getting long ribbons and it's wrapping around the coolant nozzle and moving during operation. Before leaving I played with the settings from what I read on this forum and others. The thin blade holder is flexing if I increase rpms and/or feedrate. I've already replaced the insert twice after 500pcs+.

Before leaving I finally settled on 1358rpms SFM 100 and F.001. this has created very short spirals which is fine and good chip evacuation. I have 20 years machining and milling 'green' or 'soft' carbide so I am making the transition over to conventional materials since Kennametal…..Kennabilized my old job.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[txcncman]

Peck.

[fizzissist]

make sure you're using the correct insert for the mat'l, increase the feed. slow down the rpm accordingly...
and
peck.

if your blade is bending, there's something not aligned, or you're not clamping the blade up high enough. That's a narrow blade for that dia...
You could get away with using a good HSS T-shaped blade very easily.

[Cheysay32]

I appreciate the response. I've used pecking before the time constraint isn't acceptable. It appears the rods are not properly heated treated. They are inconsistent from rod to rod and within the same rod. Regardless, of whether I'm near the chuck or farthest away. 4" from jaw face.

This Smithy Talon lathe strikes me as poorly built, but it's intent is just to be a one trick pony. Another point to using the insert, it was supposedly selected for this material, was for quickly replacement. Once I have all the programs written, proven, and dialed in the operator is just going to feed the machine and nothing else. So far it's doing that. Today I went with SFM100 and feedrate .002/rev with a max 1358rpm. At worst it gives me very short curls that easily evacuates the part. At best I get my nice chip flows that I start craving salsa.

I just need to understand how to adjust the two factors SFM/Feed rate. I sometimes think I'm going in the wrong direction. Faster when I should slower. Too light of stock removal when I should be taking more.

P.S. I put my indicator on the cut off tool blade and running across the X axis and got a dead point on the indicator when I first set it up. I know my supervisor ran it when I took a day off. It's not as recognizable as compared to a Haas or similar machine. He might of easily crashed the tool slightly to knock it off.

Thanks again.

[zero_divide]

Its very hard to break aluminum chips.
Pecking is probably your best guess.
Thin long chips are usually caused by too light of a feedrate.
0.001 ipr is almost nothing.
You would be better off increasing chipload and using chip-break ycle to prevent chips from clogging up.

Also how is your holder positioned?
Its better to put it in such a way that chips fall down into a chip tray and not just sit on top of the tool. (Use an upside-down tool).