what do i look at

been playing around with aspire on a trial and finding it hard what to look at. i have a bitmap traced and ends up previewing well but I'm struggling to determine what settings i should look at when increasing cutting speed but keeping detail. i know it depends on machine but say i spend about 7k on a 8x4 machine is that enough to get a well built machine and if so could someone give me the maths inside aspire that i could achieve. such as when using standard tools my spindle speed is 12000rpm and feed rate is 60 but obviously a slow cut so with that price i mentioned what could i bump those settings to?

cheers

Ash

I think you are asking an impossible question. You can't use the simulation to find the cutting speed on a real machine.
You don't say what the DOC is you want or what you are trying to cut you mention 60 is inches mm or apples !! feed rate is dependant on the material the number of flutes on the cutter and the DOC etc.

The maths are very simple.
-You have a good machine with 8kw spindle,ATC, expensive router bit 150 euro each, vacuum table, good vacuum aspiration, you could cut all day at 400IPm full depth

Now lower any of these and speed and depth of cut go down and degrades to what you said above, even if the machine is ok.

There are much more things also to consider, material, shape, finish, bit life...

But one thing is clear, if you are in a hurry you will need a machine with all the bells and whistles

400IPm full depth !!! what in ali or 50 mm in oak etc The op does not say what he is cutting

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clive S

400IPm full depth !!! what in ali or 50 mm in oak etc The op does not say what he is cutting

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Obviously wood or panel most likely jusdjing from the size of machine, as i would not say 60ipm is slow in aluminum

in most cases its mainly 25mm mdf but i want the possibilities of all types of wood including thin plastic and aluminium.

Hi Ash, (This is reply of email sent to me by ash for sake of others)

Oh man you’ve asked a question now.!! . . . One I can’t answer properly.?

Well first when they say depends on machine they don’t mean what electronics your using or the speed it can travel at. Most machines can travel faster than they can cut at. It’s more to do with Strength and stiffness along with spindle power. Stronger machine can cut deeper and still give decent finish provided it’s got enough spindle power.

How fast you can cut depends on many variables but machine strength and spindle power play big part. The truth is cutting is trade off between speed and quality. Having both means very strong machine. Which in turn means heavy strong materials. Which in turn means high quality and powerful components like servos. Then you have Spindle power.?
To cut deep not only means strong machine it requires lots of Torque in the spindle. Quality finish often requires high spindle speed and Spindle with high torque and High rpm are very expensive.

What I’m trying to say is while £7k seems lot of money when it comes to High speeds and High quality then it’s nothing really. The spindle alone could eat half that.!! Servos required for high feeds will be another 2K and it goes on.!
So need to be realistic and realise that you will have a limit and for high feeds then your machine will be some of that limit.

Then you have tooling and material combo that gets thrown into the mix.? Material type as big influence on cutting speed, each having there own parameters and preferred feeds/speeds.
Cutter type material it’s made from and number of flutes also play another big part. Cutter materials like Carbide can be run much harder or deeper but only if the Spindle and Machine are man enough. HSS tooling is more forgiving on machine but can’t cut so fast or deep and often needs lower spindle RPM which is where Spindle torque comes into play. On spindles like WC 2.2Kw when run slow there isn’t lots of torque available. So to combat this you have to cut shallower or much slower. Often both which restrict total cycle time.

These are just a few of the parameters that dictate feeds & speeds. Machine strength, spindle power, material, Cutter flutes, cutter material, Cutter length, chip clearing, lubrication all these play part in the final
feeds n speeds.
So this is why I or no one else can't give you exact feeds & speeds. Unfortunately lot of it is trial and error.

Cheers
Dean.

cheers dean really good explination as usual :)