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How deep can you cut?

mbphoton

Aluminum
Joined
May 22, 2009
Location
Florida USA
Hello Everyone,

For me the answer is...I don't know!

I have a 9A. 1941 or so. It's not perfectly adjusted, the gibbs should be a bit tighter, I'm not great at grinding bits, etc.....

I was cutting some 2 inch alum for a job and was getting a little bored so I thought I'd try to go faster. I doubled my depth, no problem. Just the same usual slight hiss sound over the noise the motor itself makes.

I doubled again, no problem, again....Finally I'm cutting 3/8 deep in a single pass with just the same slight hiss sound. Beyond that I don't know how deep I could cut. I ran out of the ground part of my cutter!

My feed was slower and I didn't do it too long as the curl coming off of the cut was just too much to control, it was a mess, but 3/8 deep and the machine barely noticed it was cutting anything.

Does anybody know how deep you can really go with a Southbend?

Mbphoton
 
On my 10L on Al I've always run out of cutter before I ran out of depth, like you did. Steel is a whole other story of course.
 
The other day I made an AXA tengential cutter and for a test I started with small cuts in steel and got all the way to 1/4" deep cuts, I think it could have gone more but I ran out of cutter also. I am using a Heavy 10.

Russell
 
On my 10k I can take half inch (1" off diameter) in steel. I upgraded to a 1 hp baldor motor and have the serpentine belt. Cuts that pretty easily in lowest backgear on faster motor pulley (can't remember the rpm). I use HSS in Aloris holder. My original setup was a 3/4hp dayton motor which was half the size of the baldor and seemed incredibly weak. I could probably do more but haven't felt the need.
 
That is F*ing amazing!

If I was doing a cut that serious I would choose a cutting fluid that smokes just so it would look cooler:D

Mbphoton

Sometimes i just run my chip brush over the cut as it always has some oil on it just to get the smell of an old shop in my basement. It also gets my wife beating her shoe on the floor to stop stinking up the house. Here are a few pics of the 1/2" cut...Bob
 

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Hello Aametalmaster,

Could you do deeper? It looks like your running out of cutter too.

I can see some blue on those chips, strings....ribbons!? Not sure, but I bet they smoke really good.

Keep up the good work.

mbphoton
 
Sometimes i just run my chip brush over the cut as it always has some oil on it just to get the smell of an old shop in my basement. It also gets my wife beating her shoe on the floor to stop stinking up the house. Here are a few pics of the 1/2" cut...Bob

You are taking 1/2" deep cuts removing 1" total material at a time? That must be a bigger than average insert?

Russell
 
Hello Aametalmaster,

Could you do deeper? It looks like your running out of cutter too.

I can see some blue on those chips, strings....ribbons!? Not sure, but I bet they smoke really good.

Keep up the good work.

mbphoton

I will have to grind up a nice HSS tool bit as i am sure 3/4" deep wouldn't be a problem...Bob
 
Sometimes i just run my chip brush over the cut as it always has some oil on it just to get the smell of an old shop in my basement. It also gets my wife beating her shoe on the floor to stop stinking up the house. Here are a few pics of the 1/2" cut...Bob

Would love to see some video of this.

I remember the days when the ladies would get together and give each other 'perms'. Nothing stunk the house up worse than that. Took me a while to figure out why the bathroom smelled of vinegar occasionally as well (back in the day). ;) :cheers:
 
Depth of cut is one thing, but what kind of feed rates are you using to make those 1/4 and 1/2 cuts? I find a lot of times what limits your cut is more how well you can hang on to the work. (I need a new set of top jaws for my 6" set-tru.)
 
Depth of cut is one thing, but what kind of feed rates are you using to make those 1/4 and 1/2 cuts? I find a lot of times what limits your cut is more how well you can hang on to the work. (I need a new set of top jaws for my 6" set-tru.)

I was using almost the slowest feed on my Heavy 10 when I took a 1/4" deep cut. I only had a few minutes to try out the tool holder I made so I didn't push it any further than I did, I may try faster feeds the next time I get a chance.

Russell
 
That's about what I thought, that those deep cuts would be really light - I tend to make a lot of .050" deep cuts at like .010" per rev feed in steel, often times a similar feed rate at .100 DOC in aluminum, depending on how tight I can grab the work. The other day I was machining some Mystery Steel, annealed suzuki crankshaft steel at this rate also do a lot of 304 / 316 stainless.
 
Yep, depth of cut is meaning less, its all about cubic inches of material removed per minute. With my 9" machine setup with carbide I generally rough taking a .040-.060" per side cut with the spindle running at 690rpm and the feed at around .006-.008" per revolution. That will remove a lot of material in very short order.
 
Yep, depth of cut is meaning less, its all about cubic inches of material removed per minute. With my 9" machine setup with carbide I generally rough taking a .040-.060" per side cut with the spindle running at 690rpm and the feed at around .006-.008" per revolution. That will remove a lot of material in very short order.

Permit me to show my ignorance. I have what I suppose amounts to an 8 speed machine (SB 16"): Four speeds out of back gear and four in back gear ranging from around 25 rpm to 900 +/-. How is it that I would know what the feed was in .001 per revolution? I will assume this is accomplished with the QCGB? I do not have an index plate on my machine and only have the TPI marked for each tumbler position on a paper chart.
 








 
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