Looking for a better tool for 304L facemill

M

mdubuk

Plastic

Joined

Mar 19, 2021

Location

Reading, PA

• Apr 2, 2021

• #1

I am working on a project with 304L stainless and wondering if I am running the best facemill for the job.

Material is 2.5" x 5.25" x 1" 304L and I am taking 0.0625" off the top in one pass.
The tool is a Sumitomo WGC 3" facemill with ACM300 grade inserts running at 650RPM (510SFM) and 24IPM (0.006IPT).
Machine is Haas VF8 with CAT50 spindle and 7500 RPM max.

This is running well but would like to see if there is a better tool to squeeze some more cycle time out of the program. We run 500 to 1000 parts at a time and any time saved adds up.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Cole2534

Diamond

Joined

Sep 10, 2010

Location

Oklahoma City, OK

• Apr 3, 2021

• #2

Well, what is that tool >not< doing now that is causing you to seek something faster? Insert life, surface finish, etc...

Sent via CNC 88HS

 

B

BT Fabrication

Titanium

Joined

Nov 3, 2019

Location

Ontario Canada

• Apr 5, 2021

• #3

what does your tooling rep suggest? have you got a hold of a company in the insert tooling field?

 

C

CBlair

Diamond

Joined

Sep 23, 2002

Location

Lawrenceville GA USA

• Apr 5, 2021

• #4

Well more teeth should let you run it faster. I dont do that kind of production work so I have to admit I try for best surface finish and leave it at that.

Charles

 

Mtndew

Diamond

Joined

Jun 7, 2012

Location

Michigan

• Apr 5, 2021

• #5

What Cole2534 said, we need more info in order to better give you advice on a different cutter.
That being said, if your issue is tool life and cycle time, I'd take a look at the Sandvik Coromill 745 cutter. 14 edges per insert and it's a beast of a cutter.

CoroMill 745

 

Rick Finsta

Stainless

Joined

Sep 27, 2017

• Apr 5, 2021

• #6

Get some tooling guys in there to fight for your business. I'd talk to Seco and Sandvik for sure.

 

C

CORONA VIRUS

Banned

Joined

Feb 25, 2020

• Apr 6, 2021

• #7

Medium feed mill will do much better.

 

M

mdubuk

Plastic

Joined

Mar 19, 2021

Location

Reading, PA

• Apr 27, 2021

• #8

Thank you for the feedback. The tool is doing fine, I'm getting 80 to 90 parts per edge and finish is acceptable. I wanted to make sure I not overlooking a tool that might give me a little more tool life in the 304L.
I have spoken with Seco and have not found a tool with better life or be able to reduce cycle time. I will look into the Sandvik Coromill 745 that Mtndew suggested.

 

D

Delw

Stainless

Joined

Jan 8, 2019

• Apr 28, 2021

• #9

mdubuk said:

Thank you for the feedback. The tool is doing fine, I'm getting 80 to 90 parts per edge and finish is acceptable. I wanted to make sure I not overlooking a tool that might give me a little more tool life in the 304L.
I have spoken with Seco and have not found a tool with better life or be able to reduce cycle time. I will look into the Sandvik Coromill 745 that Mtndew suggested.

Click to expand...

if you do the correct approach and also chamfer the edges before you face mill them you will get 30-40% expanded tool life, but you will add a little time. the chamfer along adds alot to insert live as the sharp edges really eat the inserts. that chamfer is an old nickle allot and hard metal approach we used in the past with ceramics and it makes a big difference on carbide as well.

Sandvic has on there website how to approach the part using a face mill, it made a huge difference in insert life for use on the fadals, we couldnt run them in our VF2SS as it beat the crap out of the machine. but yours is a cat 50 so you shouldnt have any issue's I was using the 245 3" sandvic facemill.