umab86•3d ago

Switched from HSS to carbide end mills and my cycle times dropped by half

I was running a job on my Haas VF-2 at the shop here in Milwaukee for about 6 months straight, cutting 6061 aluminum brackets. Always used HSS 3-flute end mills because that's what the guy before me stocked. Last week I finally swapped to a single carbide 3-flute from my supplier and bumped the RPM from 4000 to 8000 with the same feed rate. The difference was night and day. Chips came off cleaner and I cut my cycle time from 12 minutes down to 6.5 per part. My tool life actually went up too, not down like I thought. Has anyone else had that experience with carbide in softer materials? I'm curious if I should switch all my tooling now.

2 comments

2 Comments

grace5653d ago

Oh man, I totally get what you mean. I had a similar thing happen to me a few months back on my Bridgeport at home, working on some aluminum brackets for a side project. I was scared to try carbide because I thought it'd be too brittle for lighter cuts, but once I bumped the speeds up like you did, the finish was way smoother and my tool life actually went up too. I was running HSS at like 3500 RPM and switched to a carbide 2-flute at around 7000, and my cycle time dropped from 7 minutes to maybe 3.5. The chips just flew off and I didn't have to slow down for chatter anymore. It's wild how much better they cut in aluminum even though it's so soft.

emeryn833d ago

Yeah that's the trick with aluminum, crank the speeds up and let the carbide eat!