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Old timer told me my feeds and speeds were way too conservative, changed everything
I always ran my CNC at safe slow settings to avoid crashes, but a retired machinist watched me one day and said 'you're babying it, push it harder.' He showed me how to bump up the feed by 30% on aluminum and the finish actually got better. Anyone else get feedback that made you totally change your approach?
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casey26815d ago
Ha, I gotta push back a bit here. You're right that thin walls need proper chip load, but the old timer's advice still stands in a lot of cases. Cheap end mills can handle a 30% bump if you're not at the limit already. The real issue is that most people run way too conservative because they're scared, not because it's actually smart. I've seen guys take a 0.005 inch chip load on a 1/4 inch end mill in aluminum and wonder why it burns. Crank it to 0.012 per tooth and the finish gets mirror smooth. Sure, thin walls are tricky, but if your setup is decent and you're not trying to hog off a quarter inch in one pass, the speed increase usually helps more than it hurts. What kind of machine are you running anyway?
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angelamurphy16d ago
That "babying it" comment hits close to home. But I gotta say, bumping feed by 30% on aluminum isn't always the right move. It depends a lot on your setup and tooling. If you're using a cheap end mill with not much flute length, pushing it that hard can cause chatter or break the tool. I learned that the hard way when I tried it on a thin-walled part and got a terrible finish. So while the old timer's advice worked for him, you still have to consider your own machine's rigidity and the specific geometry you're cutting.
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