boosted
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2014
- Location
- Portland, OR
I'm sure it's been asked, but a quick search doesn't return anything.
What is the best mild steel for machinability?
Specifically we are milling some fixture plates, roughly 1in x 18 x 18. Punching a large hole in the middle, drilling some bolt hole patterns, doing some surfacing, and some side work - about 75% of the material is removed by the time it's done. The only functional requirements are a couple tight bores and a flatness callout (within .001in constrained), but I would really like them to be shiny/pretty as well, at least within reason.
We are currently making similar parts out of A36. The material seems to have acceptable dimensional stability, but we are having a really hard time getting good surface finish, and we are struggling with tool life a bit on some of the smaller (<.050) tools. I've cut a lot of other steels, but don't know enough to confidently recommend something that will be "better" IME 1018 likes to warp, and I think 4140 will cut too slow.
What is the best mild steel for machinability?
Specifically we are milling some fixture plates, roughly 1in x 18 x 18. Punching a large hole in the middle, drilling some bolt hole patterns, doing some surfacing, and some side work - about 75% of the material is removed by the time it's done. The only functional requirements are a couple tight bores and a flatness callout (within .001in constrained), but I would really like them to be shiny/pretty as well, at least within reason.
We are currently making similar parts out of A36. The material seems to have acceptable dimensional stability, but we are having a really hard time getting good surface finish, and we are struggling with tool life a bit on some of the smaller (<.050) tools. I've cut a lot of other steels, but don't know enough to confidently recommend something that will be "better" IME 1018 likes to warp, and I think 4140 will cut too slow.