Need some advice on milling turcite for a fadal 4020 vmc

ben29 · Oct 22, 2012

We are having a 4020 rebuilt(box ways), we had x ways reground, cleaned everything very good and the guy who is going to put it back together glued new turcite on the bottom of table and bottom of the x ways. I get the job of using another 4020 to machine them flat and put the oil grooves in them. I was just wondering if anybody had experience with this and could give me some pointers like tools and speeds used to get a good finish, depth of groove etc.. I would greatly appreciate it.

gorrilla · Oct 23, 2012

personal message in your box.

PMT · Oct 23, 2012

We usually just use a cutoff wheel or dremel etc to put the oil grooves in, hand scrape to fit then flake the surface.

Little pieces of foam ear plug work good to plug the oil hole prior to glueing. Your guy did plug the holes, did he not?

IAMATT · Oct 23, 2012

PMT said:
We usually just use a cutoff wheel or dremel etc to put the oil grooves in, hand scrape to fit then flake the surface.

Little pieces of foam ear plug work good to plug the oil hole prior to glueing. Your guy did plug the holes, did he not?

Are you serious? Why would you flake the surface of any part of a Fadal way?

ben29 · Oct 23, 2012

PMT said:
We usually just use a cutoff wheel or dremel etc to put the oil grooves in, hand scrape to fit then flake the surface.

Little pieces of foam ear plug work good to plug the oil hole prior to glueing. Your guy did plug the holes, did he not?

He plugged the holes and wants me to face the surface and use an 1/8 in. end mill to cut grooves. Im not sure if I should use a facemill or endmill and take more than one pass, the mill I'm using the spindle droops about .0005 nose down over about 6 in. I also need a good baseline to level table off of before I cut. I'm sure I'll figure it out. Just wondering if anybody has done it before and might have some tips, thanks.

cash · Oct 23, 2012

I have never heard to flake turcite.

Scrape to fit-absolutly.

When oil grooving make sure you know what thickness turcite was used so you dont go too deep!!

alphonso · Oct 24, 2012

We use a flycutter to get the turcite flat and to thickness at 300 sfm. Ball mill oil grooves at 350 sfm.

dksoba · Oct 24, 2012

So how much will it have cost total to have the box ways rebuilt?

ben29 · Oct 24, 2012

dksoba said:
So how much will it have cost total to have the box ways rebuilt?

I'm not sure I'll find out and let you know.

ben29 · Oct 24, 2012

alphonso said:
We use a flycutter to get the turcite flat and to thickness at 300 sfm. Ball mill oil grooves at 350 sfm. View attachment 61588 View attachment 61587

Thanks that was what I needed to know.

ben29 · Nov 4, 2012

I finished with machining the turcite I think they came out pretty good. here are some pics.

ben29 · Dec 3, 2012

dksoba said:
So how much will it have cost total to have the box ways rebuilt?

The Fadal guy charges $5500.00 to replace x and y turcite gibs and all. Talked to him today about doing another one. As long as you have another machine the same size or bigger you could do it yourself it really did't look too complicated, if it was my machine I wouldn't pay that much.

Uguessedit · Apr 26, 2020

I don’t know if you’re still on here or if someone else can answer. I see the turcite is only a short little section and wondering why it’s not the length of the table? Went to inspect our turcite and fill extending the x either way I can’t see any of it. Is there some trick to inspect visually without pulling the table off? Indicating suggests our table is flat though it surprises me for a 95 machine it would be ok.

gmc1724 · Apr 26, 2020

If it ain't broke....

DMF_TomB · Apr 26, 2020

ben29 said:
We are having a 4020 rebuilt(box ways), we had x ways reground, cleaned everything very good and the guy who is going to put it back together glued new turcite on the bottom of table and bottom of the x ways. I get the job of using another 4020 to machine them flat and put the oil grooves in them. I was just wondering if anybody had experience with this and could give me some pointers like tools and speeds used to get a good finish, depth of groove etc.. I would greatly appreciate it.

.
.
turcite machines like most plastics (doesnt like dull tools), never worried about going max rpm and feed, usually you want it to indicate <.0004" per 40"
.
oil groove shape and depth, most just read and follow the drawing spec on what engineer wants

mmurray70 · Apr 27, 2020

Uguessedit said:
I don’t know if you’re still on here or if someone else can answer. I see the turcite is only a short little section and wondering why it’s not the length of the table? Went to inspect our turcite and fill extending the x either way I can’t see any of it. Is there some trick to inspect visually without pulling the table off? Indicating suggests our table is flat though it surprises me for a 95 machine it would be ok.

The table on the a Fadal extends past the saddle it sits on. Older machines seem to have turcite running the full length of table, but at some point I think they shortened the turcite so most of it is always supported by the ways underneath, and therefore maybe less likely to separate from the table?

My Fadal is a 94 4020 and when I bought it I couldnt see turcite either, scared me a little but took a chance on it since table dialed fairly flat. Realized after that this is fine. I think when table is all the way to soft limit you may just be able to see an inch or so of the turcite.

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Need some advice on milling turcite for a fadal 4020 vmc

ben29

Aluminum

gorrilla

Stainless

PMT

Cast Iron

IAMATT

Stainless

ben29

Aluminum

cash

Titanium

alphonso

Titanium

dksoba

Hot Rolled

ben29

Aluminum

ben29

Aluminum

ben29

Aluminum

ben29

Aluminum

Uguessedit

Aluminum

gmc1724

Aluminum

DMF_TomB

Diamond

mmurray70

Stainless

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