Tool Life/ Usage Aluminum parts suggestion

Hello all,

I just want to say I ve been a luker for some time because this is such a great source information for all machining topics related. Today I encounter some doubts and I want to know what you guys think.

I am trying to define some tool life average or type of standard for our workshop (all 5 axis milling machines).
I just want to know you guys what do you think.
I want to divide tool usage by 2 categories:

• Hole making
• Roughing and finishing.

In our process there are some holes 0.172 +- 0.001 with a Positional tolerance of 0.001 that is shared by 90% of references, the process of this hole is all the same in all the references.

SPOT DRILL----DRILL----REAMER

Part material is aluminum 7075 T5451.
the current material for the hole process is HSS.

Other 2 main processes which are finishing and roughing done by Carbide cutting tools with 3 flutes.

So I plan to change everything to carbide to calculate just a rough approximation to reality.

Once everything is changing I will measure with a software the total cutting time of the tool provided by all the references. Then I will define the time to change the tool, so the operator knows when is time to change it.

The previous time will be an estimate usage of the tools reported by the operators or by the manufacturer.


I dont know what you guys think of this process, any comments will be appreciated.

On the correct path IMHO. You can only determine tool life with your particular process. There are a ton of variables that determine tool life so determining it for your specific processes is really the only way to do it. The added benefit is that as you test new tools, you have a baseline of data to refer to.

many variables. as a apprentice milling aluminum and not using any coolant or oil and flutes clogged or full of stuck on aluminum needing a hammer and screwdriver to pound off and of course other machinist laughing at the apprentice
.
just saying you can get long tool life down to 5 minutes if you forget to use coolant. if you cut dry you need to alter feeds and speeds and depth and width of cut to not get chips sticking to cutting edges

Thanks for all your comments !