I break more tiny T slot cutters than anything else.
Anybody know of feed speed DOC guidlines for small T slot and woodruff cutters?
I'm doing a 0.140" slot in hard 4140 in the morning using a carbide T slot cutter.
Karl
I break more tiny T slot cutters than anything else.
Anybody know of feed speed DOC guidlines for small T slot and woodruff cutters?
I'm doing a 0.140" slot in hard 4140 in the morning using a carbide T slot cutter.
Karl
Are you pre-cutting the slot before you Tee it ? Not that I've ever cut one in metal , but when I was doing some dovetail cuts it made a big difference to have most of the waste gone before I dug out the dt cutter .
Jeez. Good luck. You're pushing it.
Run at a speed that's appropriate for the cutter material, work material and hardness.....same as with any other milling cutter.
Feed at a rate that does not deflect the cutting tool (necked shank) past it's elastic limit, removing alternate cutter teeth to allow maintainence of a reasonable chip thickness (IPT) if need be.
Flood the living piss out of it and/ or use a strong steady blast of compressed air to prevent recutting of chips and to elimimate heat build up at the cutting interface.
I've exceeded the elastic limit MANY times.
I like the idea of removing alternate teeth, only one tooth cutting at a time would be possible with today's job.
I'll set up the cold air gun for air blast this time. I hate the noisy SOB plus the air compresser can hardly keep up. Should work really well here.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Karl
maintainence of
I would not go that far, too much shock from intermittant full unloading.
3 teeth is probably a better minimum, keeps lash out of the spindle gearing, splines and so forth.Good luck.
splines and so forth.
I was able to find the tech manual for the cutter: 150 SFPM, 0.0005 chip load. So I ran 1200 RPM and 3.5 IPM on this 1/2" six flute cutter.
Purred like a kitten.
Karl
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