Anything Machining

You are a nice friend - that is a lot of blending in stainless! Came out nice!

 

Breaking in a new machine by hitting a new personal record this week

7075 alum
5/8 3flute endmill
415 IPM
12000RPM
1.1” DOC
.156 WOC
.01 FPT

just finished hooking up the air cleaner this morning i couldnt wait any longer lol

 

Ok that's a real meat eater! - I tried to run my minimill at 6k rpm, 100ipm, 1" axial doc, .175 radial doc, with a .5" 3-flute and I nearly stalled the machine... I reduced feed, (should have just stopped) then noticed my cutter had pulled out just before the part ripped off the vise. I've been trying to push it a bit - went a bit to far there! Thankfully nothing broke or got an unintended hole.

 

What material?
I usually stick to 15-20% radial for aluminum but i need this cycle time to be fast to be able to feed the next operation.

 

This will be an interesting thread to watch. I make cutting tools for a living, some of the commodity endmills/drills, but mostly print tooling and one offs. I run ANCA 5 Axis cutter grinding machines but we have a Haas VF2SS mill and a Haas TL2 lathe that I get to play around with quite a bit. Nothing for the Tacoma yet, but that's coming. I'm using Fusion 360 as well, it can't be beat for the price, very powerful software even without the extensions they sell for it.

 

6061. I learned there is a big difference between what the cutter feeds and speeds chart from the mfr says the cutter can do and what my machine can do! Lol. Next test is a 1" loc, .075 axial. I ran a .5" loc test and was able to crank up to 150ipm, but my control starts to really bog with adaptive tool paths at around >60-70 ipm.

 

Really enjoy this thread! Keep it going folks!

 

What machine you running on?

We had an old Matsuura mc-510. Yasnac control. Loved that thing, never broke down but could not handle modern techniques at all.

Now I’ve been spoiled with 20k spindles

 

My setup is a Haas MiniMill2 without most of the bells and whistles. I did get WIPS, the chip auger, and TSC ready (for resale) but were I to do it again, I would have skipped the TSC and added the 10k spindle. I'm beginning to think I may need the HSM option if I want to push faster adaptive tool paths. I understand there's a way to get a 200hr "try" on those unlock options... I'm going to look in to that, for sure!

I'm currently about to switch coolants. A true bummer. I started out with Synergy 735 - sounded like a good option since my machine sits idle for weeks at a time. But Haas cheaped out on the way covers and tool changer panels and they are not compatible with it. Corroded mess. I'm going to switch to Qualichem 251C and hope I don't grow smelly organisms!

 

Nice, i've always liked the idea of having a mini mill kicking around.
not much of a HAAS guy though, Our Haas seems pretty light duty compared to our Matsuura's and a couple kitamura's.

 

We’re using 735. We all hate it.

 

It corrodes everything, gunks up measuring equipment really bad, burns like a mfer if you get it in any cuts or your eye, and it’s a lot harder to get off of parts compared to other coolants I’ve used.
If you’re running a job pretty hot and burning it off it really messes with your lungs.

 

Can I quintuple like your post? UGH! I have been fighting it, reluctant to change because waaaaay out here in the boonies it's going to cost around $800 to dispose of it. I run a fixture plate and took it off about 4 months ago to check for rust and clean everything (the toolchanger's shutters were getting stuck open) and this is what it looked like. I got it mostly cleaned up but it's already pretty bad again, so I'm just done. All my tool holders, vices, etc have stains too. Ah well. I have a rag soaked in LPS2 on standby and wipe everything down when I pull it out of the machine. Qualichem, here I come.

 

Have you guys tried any other Blaser lines? I think we run the 25-md (ill have to check Tuesday) and haven't seemed to have any problems with it.
Stains the tables a bit if the fixtures are left on the table for a long time. and the mist is pretty pungent if you forget to turn the mist collectors on lol but i assume every coolant is like that?

 

We used a blasocut fluid before the switch to 735. I can’t remember what number it was anymore.

 

I haven't - but it seems so many of the folks I follow on the inter webs are using Qualichem 250 or 251, and I don't hear nightmares about it... Any experience with it?

 

I think this is the next project... This was my Dad's until he gave it to me in the 90's. Then I loaned it to a friend who was starting a business in Seattle. (I didn't have a place for it) They didn't do a great job of taking care of it - but whatever. They broke the knee crank and roached the collet screw in the spindle (at least I hope that's all they screwed up). I put a DRO on it a few years ago, but the solid state phase converter and it's two-speed motor don't get a long. Then I got the cnc and progress on fixing it up stopped. But I like having a manual mill, so it's time to finish the job of getting it back up to snuff. It is square and holds a fine tolerance. Here's the plan:
- replace 2 speed switch with electronic variable speed control/phase conversion.
- make a new knee crank
- remove/inspect and try to refurb the spindle (this one worries me)

 

How busy is everyone else?
Seems like all our customers want everything yesterday with no slowdown in sight

 

Is that aluminum bar 80/20 T slot framing or something else? Looks very nice.

 

Customers always want parts yesterday.
It's just a matter of whether they have work for you or they don't.