benc53•23d ago

Called BS on roughing end mill speeds until I tried a 3-flute variable helix

I always thought people were just flexing with their fancy tooling, but I grabbed a 3-flute variable helix for some 6061 last week and it cut through like butter with way less chatter. My old 4-flute was leaving a garbage finish and I couldn't figure out why until I actually looked at the chip thinning theory. Anyone else have a tool upgrade they were dead wrong about?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy15423d ago

Wait, chip thinning theory actually means something in practice? I always figured that was just salesman talk to upsell fancy end mills. Now I'm sitting here trying to remember if my old 4-flute was just leaving those garbage finishes because I was running it too slow all along. What kind of speeds and feeds did you settle on for that 3-flute in the 6061?

clairem4723d ago

@amy154 yeah, 0.005 ipt at 12k rpm woke that 3-flute right up.