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Been running the same speeds and feeds for 5 years until last Tuesday
I always used 1800 RPM for aluminum because that's what my old boss taught me. Switched to 4000 after a tooling rep showed me the chip thinning theory and my cycle time dropped 40 percent. Anyone else stick with old habits way longer than they should have?
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jade27122d ago
Hang on, is a 40 percent drop really that big of a deal if your parts are coming out fine at 1800? Yeah, you're making them faster, but you're also burning through tooling quicker and maybe getting worse surface finish if you don't dial everything else in. A lot of guys chase the speed numbers but end up with more problems than they started with. Feels like one of those things where the tooling rep is just trying to sell you a new cutter every week. Not saying it's wrong, just saying slow and steady wins the race sometimes.
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Wait, didn't you mention the tooling rep showed you chip thinning theory? That usually means you can bump up feed too, not just RPM. If you only cranked the speed but kept your old feed, you're probably rubbing more than cutting and that'll eat up inserts fast. I've seen guys jump from 1800 to 4000 RPM but leave feed at .002 IPR and wonder why their surface finish looks like sandpaper. Gotta bump the feed to maybe .005 or .006 to get that proper chip load. Otherwise yeah the rep sold you on half the picture.
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