Last month I tried flood coolant on a batch of 6061 parts and got way better surface finish, but the mess was insane compared to mist. Which method do you guys think is actually better for production work?
I was running a 3/8 end mill in aluminum and kept getting chatter no matter what I tried, even dropped my speed down to 1800 rpm. Finally remembered a tip from an old machinist about increasing chip load instead of babying it, so I bumped the feed rate up to 12 IPM and it cut like butter. Anyone else find themselves fighting chatter by going slower when you should actually go faster?
I run a Haas UMC750 at a shop outside Phoenix and every few months we get a fresh operator who messes up the same thing. They bump the 5th axis rotary preload up too high because they think tighter is better. I caught a guy cranking it to 80% last Tuesday on a titanium job and had to stop him before he trashed the trunnion bearings. Haas says 30-40% is the sweet spot for most jobs I've run. Why do people always assume more clamping force means more accuracy?
Bought a 10-pack of "high quality" carbide end mills for $30 off eBay and spent an entire shift dialing in feeds and speeds because every single one was ground uneven. Has anyone else wasted a day fighting cheap tooling that just won't cut right?
I grabbed a 20-pack of random Chinese end mills on Amazon for $120 thinking I was saving big. First job cutting 6061 aluminum at 80 IPM and they were chattering like crazy by the third part. Checked the edge under a loupe and it was already rounded over. Anyone else get burned by those bargain bulk listings?
I was running a batch of 50 aluminum brackets last Tuesday and every single one was coming out 0.015" oversized. Chased tool wear, machine leveling, even blamed the coolant. Finally noticed my tool setter had a tiny chip on the probe tip that threw everything off. Has anyone else spent way too long on a stupid simple fix like that?
I was running a Haas VF-2SS back in March at a shop in Cleveland, just pushing through a batch of 316 stainless steel parts. About 4 hours into the run I heard this weird hissing sound and noticed the coolant hose going to the spindle had blown off its fitting. By the time I hit the E-stop, maybe 45 seconds, coolant was spraying everywhere inside the enclosure and pooling at the base of the machine. I grabbed a shop vac and towels but a bunch of that water-based coolant had already seeped into the electrical cabinet through the floor grommets. The machine threw a bunch of alarm codes and I had to call in our maintenance guy to pull the covers off and dry everything with compressed air and contact cleaner. We lost about 6 hours of production time that day and I learned to always check those hose clamps before starting a long cycle. Has anyone else had a coolant leak cause major electrical problems or am I just unlucky?
I run a Haas VF-2 and was tracking tool life on a production run of aluminum brackets (3/8 end mill), figured I'd get maybe 3,500 parts before it dulled out. Pushed it to 10,000 just out of curiosity and the surface finish was still within spec, which totally blew my mind. Anyone else ever had a tool run way longer than you thought it would?
I was at this auction outside of Des Moines last fall and this retired machinist watched me loading a pallet of end mills. He said I should never let them clang together loose in a bucket like that. I told him they were carbide and pretty tough. He just shook his head and walked off. So I got them home and a bunch had tiny chips on the cutting edges that I hadn't noticed. Cost me about 120 bucks for a set of 8 basically useless tools. Now I keep every end mill in a separate little tube or slot. Has anyone else had a respected elder give advice that actually saved you money in the long run?
He told me his secret to getting mirror finishes was actually backing off feed rate by 15% on the final pass, not cranking it up like I always did. Has anyone else found that slowing down gives way better surface finish than pushing harder?
I used to run my machine dry all the time, figured coolant was just a mess to clean up. Then last month I had a 1/4 end mill snap on a stainless job, ruined the part and cost me about $80 in material and tooling. A guy at the shop who's been doing this 20 years showed me his before and after on the same setup with flood coolant, the finish was night and day. Anyone else swear by a certain coolant mix for stainless?
I was running some 304 stainless parts for a medical job and the CAT40 holder let go at 8k rpm. Scrapped the part and had to re-indicate the whole vise. Has anyone had good luck with shrink fit holders for heavy roughing?
I was running a batch of 50 aluminum parts for a job out of Phoenix. Everything was smooth until the coolant pump just quit at part 32. I figured it was a quick fix, maybe a blown fuse or a clogged line. Took me 6 hours to figure out it was the pump relay board that had a cracked solder joint from all the vibration. Nobody had a spare in stock locally either. Had to drive 45 miles to a shop in Tempe that had one. Has anyone else had a Haas relay board fail like that or was I just unlucky?
I bought a cheap set of ER32 collets off an online auction last month thinking I was getting a good deal. Paid $150 for a full set from 1/8 inch to 3/4 inch. They looked fine in the pictures but when they showed up the runout was terrible. I put a 1/2 inch end mill in one and measured over 5 thousandths of wobble at the tip. That's way too much for any kind of precise work. I tried to clean them and check for burrs but the taper just wasn't ground right. Ended up chunking them in the scrap bin and ordering a proper set from MariTool instead. Has anyone else gotten burned by cheap collets like this or am I the only one who fell for it?
I was running a Haas VF-2 in a shop outside Detroit, cutting some 6061 aluminum parts. This guy named Frank watched me for a minute and said 'you're babying that machine, crank the spindle up 30 percent'. I was worried about chatter and tool life, but he showed me how faster speeds with a proper chip load actually cut cleaner and made tools last longer. Has anyone else had a veteran machinist call them out on their feeds and speeds?
Honestly, I was stuck between dumping cash on a new Tormach 1100 or grabbing a beat up 2012 Haas VF-2 with a 4th axis. Went with the Haas for $18k even though it had 8,000 hours on the clock. After a weekend of cleaning and replacing the coolant pump, it runs like a dream and I’m cutting parts twice as fast. Anyone else take the gamble on older commercial iron instead of going new?
Was running a job for 304 stainless brackets last month and the chip thinning was making my finish look terrible, so I sped up the feed from 12 IPM to 14.5 IPM and the chatter completely disappeared, has anyone else seen better results from running faster instead of slower?
I was running a part on a Fadal 4020 last month and kept getting a 0.015 inch oversize on the bore. Spent 3 hours messing with wear offsets before I realized I had the wrong tool length offset loaded from a previous job. A guy named Mike at my shop pointed it out by measuring the tool with a height gage. Anyone else have a dumb mistake like this that cost you a whole shift?
I used to run my Haas mini mill with a mist system for 3 years because I thought flood would make a huge mess. Finally bit the bullet last month after a job in Phoenix had me fighting tool wear on stainless. Anyone else fight the switch for too long and then wonder why you waited?
I was fighting with a 4-flute for weeks on a job making brackets for a local shop. Chips kept packing and I was stopping every 2 minutes to clear them out. Figured I'd try a 2-flute at the same feeds and speeds just to see. Surface finish was rougher but the cycle time dropped 40% because I ran the spindle at 12k instead of 8k. No chip welding either. Has anyone else seen that big a difference swapping flute counts for different materials?
I've been running a Haas VF-2 for about two years now and I keep going back and forth between typing G-code by hand and using the CAM post processor at my shop. Last week I wrote a simple contour manually and it ran perfect, but the CAM version for the same part had a retract height that crashed into a clamp. Am I wrong for thinking hand coding is more reliable for simple jobs, or are people just not dialing in their post settings right? Has anyone else found that CAM introduces extra moves that can cause problems?
I used to just top off my coolant reservoir when it looked low and change it twice a year. Last month a job came back with surface rust on a 304 stainless part and I traced it back to my coolant sitting at pH 5.8 for over 3 weeks. Now I check it every Friday morning with a $30 meter I got from Grainger. Has anyone else had a weird corrosion issue that turned out to be a fluid chemistry problem?
I was always using the old wiggle-and-touch method with a regular edge finder (you know, the kind that skips when it hits). Took forever and I'd still mess up sometimes. Picked up a Haig brand digital one from a tool truck last month for $80. It just lights up and beeps when you're dead on. Saved me from scrapping a $200 piece of 6061 on my second job with it. Anyone else switch to one of these or still rocking the old school way?
I was grabbing some end mills at the supply house and this older machinist just dropped that line while waiting in line. I laughed but then I added up what I spent on tooling last month, about $800, and it hit me how true that is. Has anyone else got any funny nicknames or sayings they've picked up from old timers?