[HPMI]

I bar feed 17-4 stainless steel 1.25 dia. My cutoff tooling life is all over the map on reliability. I keep ending up at the current program becuse it works the best. The tooling is a .125 wide Kennametal 5025 cutoff insert. The program is G50s1500,g96s180with a feed of .002. This leaves long stringy chips that make mess. When I have tryed deeper cuts or changing the surface feed a little it usually hurts tool life. Any help would be great.

[surfside]

In a band saw, the recommended SFPM is 90 and the feed rate is 2-3 SIPM .

[HPMI]

Thank you for the information. The issue I am working on is in a CNC lathe so this information won't help with that. But I will use it when I blank 17-4 SST parts in my saw. Thanks again and have a great day.

[surfside]

Would turning speed and feed calculator help?

[HPMI]

I have all of that information. My issue is that it sometimes works and sometimes its a nightmare. I am looking for advise from someone that has maybe gone through this same situation and found a better way to do it.

[surfside]

Yes, of course! It would be a lot more better. I hope some one will show up and help you out with detailed explanation . And had the same problem with yours.

[Shane1234]

i use a sandvik rf123h098-16bm holder, insert r123h2-0400-0501-cf in 1125 grade for stainless. its .16 wide, but it parts off like a champ. You might opt for a shorter version holder with the same insert, depending on max diameter of your parting duties. my program in your situation would look like this....

g50s4000
g96s450
goox1.27z(?)
g01x.5f.005
g01x.25f.003
g01x-.05f.002

I dont have to flip my insert for a few hundred parts on hex and square stock, and lasts even longer in round. grainger charges 36 bucks for these inserts, but your local rep should be able to get them for about 26 bucks each. They are a really good 2 sided insert.

if you still have issues, you can try using an od grooving peck command, but you shouldn't have issues if you can get under the heat by going harder into the cut. make sure your coolant is aimed correctly to ensure maximum tool life. we use redline rc2500 heavy, which is for stainless (99% of our business is in stainless).

You should also check into sandvik's rougher inserts in 1125 grade, with the mf chip breaker. we runs ours dry so they wont cold shock, but they last very very long and handle pretty much whatever we throw at it. we use a wnmg-433 in mf 1125, sfm of 450 (g96s450), feed of .012 per rev, doc of .3", running dry without any air blast. it handles interrupted cut (square & hex bar) as well as round without missing a beat. The best part of the insert is that it doesn't crack or break, it wears nicely enough that when you start to hear it get louder, you know its time to change corners, so you don't ruin carbide seats or holders. I have played with all kinds of different insert manufacturers and different grades, this is by far the best I have found. by the way, we run that doc thru round and interrupted on facing with that insert, we face at the same sfm with a .01 feed to .25" and .002 feed the rest of the way. If you get a different holder to angle the cutting position of facing so it acts like turning, you can hog .3" off the face per pass no problem we run alot of 2.5" & 1.5" square stock, as well as round up to 3.5" in our romi g30 cnc lathe, and up to 2" round in our monarch p10 cnc lathe, stainless is a breeze anymore.....

if you need anymore help with stainless, hit me up.....
machineshop at idfi.com

[HPMI]

Hello Shane,
Sorry it took so long to reply. I am short on help and working long days. Thank you so much for all of the information. I also do mostly stainless steel parts. I like what you sent to me and hope to get some time soon to apply it. A Chris sent me information and told me to try a G75. I had not use that before and it took awhile to write it so that my machine would read it but that helped alot. I appreciate your tips and I may contact you in the future if you don't mind.

Thanks,
Bruce

[Shane1234]

No problem Bruce. I only use G75 on UHMW plastic since it doesn't like to chip out. I think you are leaving alot of meat on the bone by going with g75 instead of searching for a better insert/holder combo. Sure, the g75 will get you by, but it wastes alot of time and if you are continually having this issue, you will wanna fix it instead of avoiding it. I am hoping you have some good horsepower in your lathe since you are working stainless.... Stainless loves to be slapped around and shown they are your b1tch I hated it when I first started working with it, but you get the hang of it and learn to like it. Its no 12L14, but the challenges are a blast when you overcome them. I have tool reps come in and take videos of some of the stuff I am doing with their tooling, since none of their other customers believe it can be done..... Now that is satisfying......

Anyways, take it easy

Shane

[HPMI]

I also like to push tooling but I haven't gotten a stable bar cut off down yet. It the 17-4, 316 & nitronic it seems so hit and miss on tool life. That is why I wrote asking for ideas. I don't have a problem buying tooling or changing my program format. I am looking for 1st a dependable 2nd fast & 3rd cost savings way to cut off parts in my bar feeder. I am usually short staffed and flying around so taking the time to come up with a long term solution is hard. It is faster to run a 100 pieces job by doing more tool changes than to develop a new process. This is not how I want to run but it is how my priorities have become. I wrote this post so that it will get taken care of once and for all. In the years since I have bought this shop we have tackled many issues and put them behind us, this is my next one. Thanks and I hope to be able to ask you for help in the near future if you don't mind. It is hard to find time other than late at night to work on this so it maybe a few days between posts. Bruce

[Shane1234]

i hear ya buddy. most of the time we are doing one-off parts, so we don't get a chance to develop great strategies. but over the years, i have came up with a few tricks here and there to save me a few saturdays for fishing