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Tried a different feed rate for aluminum and got a nasty surprise
Been running 6061 aluminum on my Haas VF-2 for three years with the same settings. Last week I thought I'd bump up the feed from 40 IPM to 55 IPM to speed things up. Ended up with ANGRY CHATTER so bad it left a rough finish on every part and cost me a $200 insert. Lesson learned - sometimes the old setup is that way for a reason. Anyone else learned a hard way that faster isn't always better with aluminum?
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hayden70928d ago
Man that sucks but yeah aluminum is picky about feed rates. I ran 6061 on a VF-3 and found 45 IPM with a 0.005 chip load per tooth was the sweet spot for roughing. Going higher just spits out that tear-out finish every time. Took me a few trashed parts to dial it in too lol.
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carr.brooke27d ago
Yeah for real @hayden709, 45 IPM is pretty much where I landed too (after a few cuss-filled nights). I found bumping the chip load even to 0.006 started giving me that weird vibration chatter on thinner walls. It's wild how tight that sweet spot is, like a couple thou either way and it's either tearing out or pushing the tool too hard.
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