To All:
I love comparative experiments, this is from a post in PM about a week ago by "StreetSpeed".
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Hey Folks,
So I had a large aluminum job (for me anyway) I was in the middle of so I decided I wanted to see what was out there that was gonna remove aluminum the quickest. The catch, is that I have 4 Haas VMCs at my shop, and while it?s nice that the big red sticker on the side says ?20 HP? they?re actually rated closer to 10(ish) for continuous usage. It?ll put out 20hp for about 2 minutes, right before it explodes.
When I?m buying endmills for a specific job, I tend to use Niagara. I get a good deal on them, and they seem to last awhile and perform better than most other tools. They also list speeds and feeds for tons of various materials, and they?re generally spot on and not inflated in order to simply sell more tools. They?re also not exactly the cheapest tool out there, but you usually get what you pay for.
I ran the following .500? tools in 6061. .500? DOC, 95% step over, in a circular spiral pocketing cycle so the load meter would stay consistent and allow me to mess around. I adjusted the feed so that the load meter would stay consistent at 100%. Sure I coulda cranked it up to 150% or more, but I tend to try and keep things at 100%. Same tool holders, same gauge length. I was not at all concerned with tool life, so these weren?t long tests. I was simply trying to see which tool would make best use of my limited horsepower. I ran the tools at 2 speeds, and the lower speed yielded the best results. Love that Haas torque curve. Here are the results.
Niagara A345, TiCn Coating, $52 ea. ($69 list price) ?
10,000 RPM 78.6 ipm 7500 RPM 103 ipm MRR - 25.75 HP ? 6.4Destiny Tools Viper, ?Stealth? coating (Moly-S), $46 ea -
10,000 RPM 67.5 ipm 7500 RPM 89 ipm MRR- 22.25 ci/min HP ? 5.5 Bonus points awarded for coolest endmill nameGorilla Silverback, ZrN coating, $45 ea -
10,000 RPM 94ipm 7500 RPM 121 ipm MRR - 30.25 ci/min HP ? 7.5 Bonus bling points for gold ZrN coating2nd Shift Grinding, Unocoated, $39 ea.
10,000 RPM 62 ipm 7500 RPM 82 ipm MRR- 20.5 ci/min HP- 5.125So there it is. In this case, Gorilla was the clear winner. Now if I actually had some power to play with, these tests may be completely different. The Niagara and Destiny tools make claims of .009 ipt for a full slot, where Gorilla makes no such claims. Highest I got was .0054 ipt with the Gorilla. Would the thing snap with a high chip load? I don?t know, and at this point with my machines it doesn?t much matter. But the Gorilla smoked the other tools hands down, it?s the cheapest, plus it?s a sexy gold color which the ladies love. Just perhaps something to consider next time you?re looking for an efficient cutter for aluminum. Now, I have a Mazak salesman coming in an hour or so, so maybe before long I?ll do these tests all over again on a REAL machine. ==============================================================