Cutting Data for G-10

Mike Ortega · Jun 25, 2008

Hey Guys, any suggestions for cutting G-10? I have to face .250 thick to .165. Drill a .251 Hole, and contour. Part is .6 x .6 I figured I would face it down using a PCD face mill, and drill and mill with carbide. What do you guys use?

snocat_trf · Jun 25, 2008

I would just use carbide to mill as well, I have done some reaming in that stuff on a manual mill and with a .059 hole I drill a thou or two under and use a miniature carbide reamer and put a drop of cutting oil in the hole before I ream.

appliedproto · Jun 25, 2008

Carbide works just fine for low-quantity. It wipes out HSS pretty fast, but you can get atleast a couple dozen holes in before it will show signs of "burn".

Feed heavy and deep, and keep your RPM's low...and cut dry with air for easier clean up. It cuts pretty easy and quickly. Mask and Gloves are a must.

swarf_rat · Jun 25, 2008

Are you facing the whole piece?

If so, why start with .250? Or if you have only .250, why not split it to remove most of the material? Just drive a sharp chisel (like a wood chisel) in at a bit greater than the thickness needed. The stuff it strong, but splits "with the grain" very easily.

Otherwise, for only a few parts, carbide will work fine. You can feed pretty hard in it, but don't run too fast.

When I machine it, I hand hold a vacuum nozzle very close to the cutter to collect all the dust. Drilling isn't such a problem, but milling will dust your machine with some very durable abrasive.

Mike Ortega · Jun 25, 2008

swarf_rat said:
Are you facing the whole piece?

If so, why start with .250? Or if you have only .250, why not split it to remove most of the material? Just drive a sharp chisel (like a wood chisel) in at a bit greater than the thickness needed. The stuff it strong, but splits "with the grain" very easily.

Otherwise, for only a few parts, carbide will work fine. You can feed pretty hard in it, but don't run too fast.

When I machine it, I hand hold a vacuum nozzle very close to the cutter to collect all the dust. Drilling isn't such a problem, but milling will dust your machine with some very durable abrasive.

Seeing as a big company, who's even bigger on safety will flip if the door is open and a vacuum nozzle near the tool, i was thinking I could use coolant and put some fine scotchbrite under the coolant discharge chute to catch particles, then wipe the entire inside down after. It's only 24 parts.

appliedproto · Jun 25, 2008

Mike Ortega said:
Seeing as a big company, who's even bigger on safety will flip if the door is open and a vacuum nozzle near the tool, i was thinking I could use coolant and put some fine scotchbrite under the coolant discharge chute to catch particles, then wipe the entire inside down after. It's only 24 parts.

NOOOO!!!!! The dust is insidious, you'll most likely foul your coolant, and it will irritate your skin from the contaminated coolant long after this job is complete. Machine it dry (you don't need coolant anyhow), and you can vacuum up loose stuff, and then wipe down whatever sticks to the existing oils in the machine.

gustafson · Jun 25, 2008

re

I have done both. Truthfully FR4 [not much real G10 around] is not that irritating, and only makes some mud in the coolant.

GP03 is a different story, I run that dry and leave the room. Extren and other pultrusions suck also.

The stuff is soft, you can run the tool faster than some imply, I like cheap carbide, it lasts forever in this stuff.

jim rozen · Jun 26, 2008

If you can afford the PCD tooling do that. It can be run wicked fast and will hold
up well. Carbide works OK but the failure mode on that is the glass fibers pick out the
cobalt binder.

HSS will be work but the size of you tooling will change with each hole or with each
inch cut with an endmill. By a couple of thou.

Jim

Mike Ortega · Jun 26, 2008

jim rozen said:
If you can afford the PCD tooling do that. It can be run wicked fast and will hold
up well. Carbide works OK but the failure mode on that is the glass fibers pick out the
cobalt binder.

HSS will be work but the size of you tooling will change with each hole or with each
inch cut with an endmill. By a couple of thou.

Jim

Well I have a diamond facing head for the vmc that I was going to do this job in, but looks like the machine will not be hooked up in time so I'll be using carbide on the bridgeport, with a an exhaust. Hey, saves a new machine from the dust!

appliedproto · Jun 26, 2008

jim rozen said:
If you can afford the PCD tooling do that. It can be run wicked fast and will hold
up well. Carbide works OK but the failure mode on that is the glass fibers pick out the
cobalt binder.

HSS will be work but the size of you tooling will change with each hole or with each
inch cut with an endmill. By a couple of thou.

Jim

Carbide holds up remarkably well. Sure, it will develop a taper but you can get ~150 inches before you really have to adjust. I use "retired" carbide tooling for G10/FR4 cutting, no sense in fresh tooling unless need be, and tend to find that TiN coated tools hold up best. There's no sense in paying 5-10X the cost of carbide for PVD for non-production machining. Low RPMs, full DOC and cut fast to stay ahead of the heat...and what you got in your shop should get the job done fine.

Gust, you let fiberglass into your DMG....shame on you!

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Cutting Data for G-10

Mike Ortega

Aluminum

snocat_trf

Hot Rolled

appliedproto

Stainless

swarf_rat

Titanium

Mike Ortega

Aluminum

appliedproto

Stainless

gustafson

Diamond

jim rozen

Diamond

Mike Ortega

Aluminum

appliedproto

Stainless

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