cj133
Aluminum
- Joined
- May 8, 2014
- Location
- New Jersey USA
Hi all,
Ran into a problem a few nights ago while trying to finish a job and being new to this, it seemed strange but after thinking about it maybe it's not so weird.
I'd like some thoughts on it.
We were milling a slot clean through some 1/8" aluminum angle. The easiest way was to clamp the angle in a vice with the other side hanging horizontal over the vice. We then just milled our slot through it with a 1/4" square end mill.
We were running 30 inches a minute @ 5000 rpm using a 2 flute HSS 1/4" mill with 3/8" shank. This worked beautifully, good finish, not much noise etc.
I decided to swap in a solid carbide 1/4" 3 flute endmill and the results were terrible. A lot of noise and chatter and the finish was terrible. Figured maybe going to a 2 flute would fix it, but the 2 flute carbide mill had the same problem. Going back to HSS solved it.
I'm assuming the cause of this was the material wasn't terribly rigid the way we were holding it and the carbide simply didn't get along with that scenario. The carbide mills were a little longer than the HSS, but not a huge amount, I think the carbide's flutes were 1/8" longer.
We did almost 200 pieces with the HSS mill and no problems.
Thoughts? Are there times HSS is preferred over carbide from a performance standpoint?
Ran into a problem a few nights ago while trying to finish a job and being new to this, it seemed strange but after thinking about it maybe it's not so weird.
I'd like some thoughts on it.
We were milling a slot clean through some 1/8" aluminum angle. The easiest way was to clamp the angle in a vice with the other side hanging horizontal over the vice. We then just milled our slot through it with a 1/4" square end mill.
We were running 30 inches a minute @ 5000 rpm using a 2 flute HSS 1/4" mill with 3/8" shank. This worked beautifully, good finish, not much noise etc.
I decided to swap in a solid carbide 1/4" 3 flute endmill and the results were terrible. A lot of noise and chatter and the finish was terrible. Figured maybe going to a 2 flute would fix it, but the 2 flute carbide mill had the same problem. Going back to HSS solved it.
I'm assuming the cause of this was the material wasn't terribly rigid the way we were holding it and the carbide simply didn't get along with that scenario. The carbide mills were a little longer than the HSS, but not a huge amount, I think the carbide's flutes were 1/8" longer.
We did almost 200 pieces with the HSS mill and no problems.
Thoughts? Are there times HSS is preferred over carbide from a performance standpoint?