handsome devil
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- May 4, 2005
- Location
- Bonduel, Wi
Recently have worked with a couple of guys who are rebuilding some machinery by building up cast iron and machining true. I have heard from numerous sources that aluminum bronze is a real good material to build up with and machine down for heavy industrial use in many different applications. I tried welding it once and did everything wrong and had all sorts of problems. I finally called the tech service from mfg and got straightened out. Didn't have big enough machine so never finished my learning with the wire. On this latest project another person is Tig welding an aluminum bronze alloy and is finally learning to do it well enough. The problems that came later was machining the aluminum bronze. Never heard or read about problems with it? I am told it is harder than woodpecker lips and is miserable to machine. Does one have to use carbide? Is it a matter of feeds and speeds? Same with a project using stainless 316. Put the casting on the horizontal mill and it just ate up cutters. I am mystified by this as I would never of guessed that these materials would be so hard on tooling. Is there a secret I can pass on the the guys to make their jobs easier. The hi speed tools are not cutting it, have had some luck with carbide but it has been a real fight to find out what works as even some of the carbide attempts have not been successful. Any hints would be appreciated. I cannot give accurate descriptions of cutters and feeds as I am not machining any of this, but I do know the high speed tooling has not been working at all. So what can I pass along to help? Regards, John.