xena_brown50•2mo agoProlific Poster

Had a shop foreman tell me to ignore the feeds and speeds on the setup sheet

I was running a job last week on a Haas VF-2, doing some 6061 aluminum parts. The old timers setup sheet said 150 IPM at 12K RPM, but our shop foreman, Mike, told me to crank it down to 80 IPM so the tool would last. I listened to him and ended up with a terrible surface finish and a 4 hour cycle time instead of 2.5. Has anyone else found that the "experts" advice sometimes just wastes time instead of helping?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva9081mo ago

Did your buddy ever have to deal with a foreman like that? I got a friend who works at a shop down the road, and he had the exact same thing happen to him. His foreman told him to slow down a job on some 6061 brackets and the finish came out looking like sandpaper. He ended up having to redo the whole batch and his boss was mad about the wasted material. I guess sometimes the older guys are stuck in their ways and don't realize the newer machines can handle faster speeds without burning up the tools.

tarar272mo ago

13000 rpm with a 0.5 endmill in 6061? Yeah that sounds about right for the speed lol. Sounds like Mike just wanted to baby the tool, but sometimes you gotta let em eat a little to get a good finish.

tarag282mo ago

And honestly, running it a little hotter like that can clean up the chatter marks you get from babying the tool. I've found 14000 rpm with a .002 chip load and about 30 IPM gives me a mirror finish on 6061 without burning the edge of the endmill. You just gotta watch the deflection and make sure your machine is rigid enough to handle it without vibrating.