Speeds and feeds for 6082 T6 alloy

[JAZZCNC]

Yeah it's been a great machine around 19 months old now.

Bloody hell Dean can't believe been 19mths.!!.... Seems like 6mths. The machine does well to say was never really designed to cut aluminum.!

Listening to that video you need much more air you can hear it re-cutting chips this will cause extra heat with high potential to weld chips to tool also give a poorer finish.
Does your cam software have a function to use spiral tool path? This helps keep constant tool engagement and also quicker and easier on tools because not retracting and plunging at end of each pass.

Also because of high spindle speed/low torque you really need carbide tooling. HSS requires much lower RPM and these spindles don't have enough torque at low speeds. These spindles provide most torque at full RPM so the higher you can run the RPM the better and with HSS tools your always going to struggle.

Carbide lasts much longer and can be pushed much harder. Often people don't push them hard enough so when the get chatter etc they back off when often all they need to do is increase feed rates which changes the tool pressure. Obviously there's limit and machine strength does then start coming into play.

[Dean jeffery]

Bloody hell Dean can't believe been 19mths.!!.... Seems like 6mths. The machine does well to say was never really designed to cut aluminum.!

Listening to that video you need much more air you can hear it re-cutting chips this will cause extra heat with high potential to weld chips to tool also give a poorer finish.
Does your cam software have a function to use spiral tool path? This helps keep constant tool engagement and also quicker and easier on tools because not retracting and plunging at end of each pass.

Also because of high spindle speed/low torque you really need carbide tooling. HSS requires much lower RPM and these spindles don't have enough torque at low speeds. These spindles provide most torque at full RPM so the higher you can run the RPM the better and with HSS tools your always going to struggle.

Carbide lasts much longer and can be pushed much harder. Often people don't push them hard enough so when the get chatter etc they back off when often all they need to do is increase feed rates which changes the tool pressure. Obviously there's limit and machine strength does then start coming into play.

Yeah I had to check my phones pics and 29/06/16

Never planed on cutting alloy just the odd part but done more than a few now, may need an upgrade or modification.

That's the second tower I machined and I had a 15psi regulator and an iffy mist system, both not reliable.

Now I've got a new reg 30 psi and mist system that actually works

Yes I have spiral but only used to interpolate holes, never used on profiles so maybe try that instead

But I don't plunge anyway I used ramp

Tbh Dean it's the only time I used HSS was been a tight ass and if it broke or a massive fail it was only £24 gone, but worked well so stuck with it and it's a ripper in the vid leaving .25 for a finish pass with a 4mm carbide 3 flute.

If I tap carbide in my app is calls for almost 24k but 7000 mm/min

Running carbon parts and plastic parts I'm at 24k all the time.

But I'm pretty new to cutting alloy done the odd part here and there but not really enough to gain any real learning from it.

[JAZZCNC]

Yes I have spiral but only used to interpolate holes, never used on profiles so maybe try that instead

But I don't plunge anyway I used ramp

Don't mean spiral tool entry into the material, suppose could be called ramped profile.?. The toolpath I'm talking about will ramp/spiral down the whole way around the profile to the depth you set.
Ie set 3mm doc and it starts at Z0 and does one lap until reaches until reaches 3mm then does another until reaches 6mm etc. It never lifts or retracts tool until at the finished depth.
It's much faster and less stressful on tooling.

[Dean jeffery]

The reason why the tool leaves the material is because I set a lead in, I've also set a smooth ramp 3mm

I remove lead in and just left ramp now this keeps the tool into the material as you say.

I've just tested and takes the profile time down from 3:45 to 3:28 but I increased ramp to 5mm.

Then slowed the feed from originally 2500 down to 1500, slowed it down based off johns link and cutters above slows the profile time down to 4:35 with that small amount of increase it ain't really an issue.

[Dean jeffery]

This is a tweaked program today using the tooling speeds and feed John said on page 1

https://youtu.be/qXMss-2S90M

[Dean jeffery]

Seemed to go a lot smoother with that carbide VS ripper, could be a number of things.

Carbide over HSS but for the price of those carbide cutters I got 3 cheaper than the price of one HSS ripper.

[Dean jeffery]

Got 2 of these made today so the speeds and feeds of those 3 flute carbide cutters so far so good.

[johngoodrich]

Glad they are working for you Dean. I use them myself at work so I know they are good, plus a lot cheaper

[Dean jeffery]

Been cheap is an added bonus reliability is key though they will be my go to tools for alloy now though, will use cutwels for plastic.

[johngoodrich]

Cutwels alupowers are good for ally as well but a bit more costly