So I finally tried that tip about flipping your speeds and feeds around

Been running a part in 6061 aluminum for months on my Haas mini mill and could never get the surface finish right without burning through inserts. Last week I said screw it and tried what that old timer on the forum suggested: double the RPM and cut the feed rate in half. Total opposite of what I thought. Worked like a charm, got a mirror finish on the first pass and saved about $12 in tooling cost per job. Has anyone else found that the 'standard' settings in the book are just a starting point?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliotr3914d ago

Man, I was the same way. I always stuck to the book settings like they were engraved in stone, but after trying this on some stainless steel I was fighting with, it was a total game changer. Now I start way outside the recommended range and adjust from there, saves me so much headache and money.

charles_chen9314d ago

I gotta push back a little here @elliotr39. Going way outside the book settings right off the bat sounds like a recipe for wasting materials and time, especially with stainless which work hardens if you look at it wrong. Those recommended cuts are there for a reason, they give you a solid starting point that usually works with most common setups. Tweaking from there is fine, but starting totally blind just means you're guessing instead of working from proven data. You might save money on replacing expensive inserts, but you'll absolutely burn through more material and coolant mucking around with trial runs. Respect the science that put those numbers in the chart, then make small moves from there.