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Had a guy swear by 5,000 RPM for aluminum, thought he was full of it until I tried it on a job last Tuesday.
Cut a 6061 bracket in half the time with a way better surface finish, so I guess that old timer at the shop actually knew what he was talking about - anyone else got a feed or speed tip they ignored at first?
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tylerw7217d ago
Oh man, that 5,000 RPM thing sounds way too fast for aluminum doesn't it? I ignored a guy for months who kept telling me to crank up the feed rate on my router when cutting 6061, figured I'd just snap every bit in the drawer. One day I got sick of a job taking forever and bumped it from 30 IPM to like 70 IPM with a 3-flute carbide end mill, and the finish came out so clean I didn't even have to deburr the edges. That old school advice about pushing the chip load harder really does work, it keeps the heat in the chip instead of melting it onto the tool. Now I always keep my chipload around 0.004 to 0.006 per tooth for 6061 and it cuts like butter.
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dakota_rivera17d ago
Man my buddy jake tried that exact thing on his little shapeoko, kept running it slow cause he was scared. finally got fed up and pushed his feed rate way up one night and texted me a pic of the cleanest edge i've ever seen from that machine.
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