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Hard milling....

About a year...third shop into hard milling.

i am still a beginner.

What I think Iv'e learned so far is...

Collets...good for roughing and semi finishing. Spring pressure..good for semi finishing and finishing. Heat shrink...good for finishing.

The collets spring a bit, making it shock absorbing. Cutters seem to not chip during roughing. The spring pressure trimos system seems to be all purpose, semi rigid, semi shock absorbing. The heat shrink seems solid as a rock, making it totally rigid. Sounds perfect except cutters chip easily.

Not sure if I have a favorite yet. Seems all three have cons and pros. The heatshrink burns your fingers, but I made a tool to fix that. (not patented...but prolly should be)

As far as software...mastercam SUCKS at hardmilling. Cimitron rocks at hardmilling. The reason is constant chip. Cimitron is trustworthy, mastercam is not. Mastercam has all the tools to do the hardmilling, but the chip load changes. Cimitron gets an A++ at chip load.

Machines.... Been hardcutting on a 20 grand cat 40 taper. Works ok with a laser pickup since you can spin at the rpm your going to cut at when picking up. My guess is this is not the perfect setup.

tools.... Seems like a lot of your success lies in the cutters you use. Been using OSG, just switched to mitsubishi.

What's yall's experience with hardmilling??

Reply to
vinny
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Vinny, what version of Mastercam are you using?

Reply to
Joe788

Had to switch jobs recently after 13+ years. Now back on the shop floor. We do ALOT of hardmilling, AND drilling. I get heat treated H13 saw cut blocks. And spit out a finished part(save for maybe a couple of burns, or some 5 axis areas). I use shrink fit for everything. We have refrigerated coolers by the heat shrink machine. OSG end mills, mostly. Use 2" ingersol button cutters for roughing the hard stuff. Stelram for roughing P20(.04"DOC, and 300IPM feedrate) But, I am ruining a OKK VM7. 50 taper 13K spindle, with laser. Programmed with either UG or PowerMill. The computer at my machine has both PowerMill and UG on it.

Reply to
Steve Mackay

Vinny, what version of Mastercam are you using?

********* 3...(cough 4)
Reply to
vinny

We are still roughing blocks out pre-heat treat. Maybe that'll change in the near future.

2 or 4 flute button cutters....and how long do the inserts last usually cutting from a solid?

We have that okk machine, 50 cat taper, mostly used for moldbases and pre heat treat milling. Out hard milling we do on a makino, which kicks ass, but it has a 40 taper. I feel like we are efficient, except for pre heat treat roughing. Maybe thats the next step.

Reply to
vinny

4 flute. .05DOC, 100IPM 1200RPM. Inserts, it varies. sometimes 15 minutes or less. If the tool stays in the cut well, it'll last 20-30 minutes.

That OKK is supremely rigid.

Reply to
Steve Mackay

With Mastercam 9 you can drill then plunge into the hole and machine the pocket with morph spiral option. Just select both the pocket chain and the plunge point and you have a side cut not to exceeding what you specify. That way you use the whole flute of the cutter.

DanP

Reply to
DanP

A picture is worth a thousand words:

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DanP

Reply to
DanP

A picture is worth a thousand words:

formatting link
DanP

**** Now that is impressive, even for a 2d pocket. Badass!!
Reply to
vinny

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