aarongough
Stainless
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2014
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
Hey guys!
This weekend I am going to be rebuilding my VMC (Fadal VMC10) with the goal of chasing better surface finishes for making my product... I will be replacing the spindle, XYZ ballscrews, couplers and thrust bearings all with new components to replace the 20 year old worn out ones.
The machine is currently in poor shape. Spindle taper is bell-mouthed, has low drawbar pressure, as well as 0.0016" of runout. Ballscrews are also in poor shape with around 0.0015" of backlash on each axis. Obviously surface finish as-is is sub-par.
Right now I am 3D contouring to finish the surface of my blades. Using a 1/4" 4 flute carbide TiAIN coated endmill with 0.060" corner radius, running 7500RPM and 50IPM in a short gage length ER25 holder. Material is annealed A2 tool steel. The results I'm getting are poor and I know I can do a lot better. Example of current surface finish shown here: (ignore messed up bevel from fixturing issue!)
My goal with the rebuild and the desire to re-tool is to drastically improve the surface finish that I'm able to achieve straight off the VMC. I don't particularly care if cycle time goes up, I just want to eliminate as much hand work as possible as it's a huge source of inconsistency.
Early next year I will be looking to move to hard-milling to continue chasing better surface finishes while also simplifying my process...
Ok long winded intro is over... My question is: what toolholding system(s) should I be looking at?
Currently I'm using short gage length ER25 holders from Maritool (which are great!) but I know there are other systems that tend to have lower runout. The guys at Maritool have CAT40 SK collet holders that look like they would be better, but what is the best system I can get?
I know the guys that do hard-milling on molds use a lot of shrink-fit tooling, is that what I should be looking at as well?
Note that I don't need long gage-length tooling... I'm currently using 1.85" gage length ER holders with stub-length endmills and that gives me plenty of reach, so long toolholders are not necessary.
Any and all input greatly welcomed, thanks guys!
-Aaron
This weekend I am going to be rebuilding my VMC (Fadal VMC10) with the goal of chasing better surface finishes for making my product... I will be replacing the spindle, XYZ ballscrews, couplers and thrust bearings all with new components to replace the 20 year old worn out ones.
The machine is currently in poor shape. Spindle taper is bell-mouthed, has low drawbar pressure, as well as 0.0016" of runout. Ballscrews are also in poor shape with around 0.0015" of backlash on each axis. Obviously surface finish as-is is sub-par.
Right now I am 3D contouring to finish the surface of my blades. Using a 1/4" 4 flute carbide TiAIN coated endmill with 0.060" corner radius, running 7500RPM and 50IPM in a short gage length ER25 holder. Material is annealed A2 tool steel. The results I'm getting are poor and I know I can do a lot better. Example of current surface finish shown here: (ignore messed up bevel from fixturing issue!)
My goal with the rebuild and the desire to re-tool is to drastically improve the surface finish that I'm able to achieve straight off the VMC. I don't particularly care if cycle time goes up, I just want to eliminate as much hand work as possible as it's a huge source of inconsistency.
Early next year I will be looking to move to hard-milling to continue chasing better surface finishes while also simplifying my process...
Ok long winded intro is over... My question is: what toolholding system(s) should I be looking at?
Currently I'm using short gage length ER25 holders from Maritool (which are great!) but I know there are other systems that tend to have lower runout. The guys at Maritool have CAT40 SK collet holders that look like they would be better, but what is the best system I can get?
I know the guys that do hard-milling on molds use a lot of shrink-fit tooling, is that what I should be looking at as well?
Note that I don't need long gage-length tooling... I'm currently using 1.85" gage length ER holders with stub-length endmills and that gives me plenty of reach, so long toolholders are not necessary.
Any and all input greatly welcomed, thanks guys!
-Aaron