TIP OF THE DAY MILLING TITANIUM

Darrel Ralph

Darrel Ralph

Joined
Dec 14, 1998
Messages
4,870
When milling titanium I use solid carbide cutters. Old wives tails from Rockwell international B1 Bomber days were that ti and carbide cutters didnt mix. WELL I disagree.
I use them daily.. 1/4 in 1/8 in and 1/6
work ok in my shop . I feel that climb milling roughing and finishing works best also

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[This message has been edited by Darrel Ralph (edited 08 December 1999).]
 
thats old wives tales...not tails...that could get you in big trouble...and another thing that could get you in big trouble is climb milling on a worn mill.....DONT TRY IT. right darrel?

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Your right about the tail hehehe I can feel the smack from the hand of woman on my bald head ..
As for dull cutter ... In ti I dont think ANY dull cutter will do. It burns the material and little sparks fire everywhere and cause your building to burn to the ground/!!!!!!!
As for speed and feed I havent sat down and figured the SFM.. I am just used to what I know to be right for the cutters ..
1/4 in end mills I run at 900-1400 rpm depending on the grade of ti. Feed at 2 imp -8 imp depending on DOC and number of Cutter flutes
On the small ones its 1800-2200 rpm depending on the same factors... IMP is around 2-4
DULL cutters =0 rpm ... no fires needed ahahha..


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Web Site At www.infinet.com/~browzer/bldesmth.html
Take a look!!!




 
Ok,
I have to post the Speed and Feed Chart from Kennemetal tomorow!! You guys will think Im crazy!!!! Try about quadrupling Darrels Speed and Feed figures!!! Bare (not BEAR) in mind that this is on VERY rigid, solid, coolant bathed CNC machinery. Not relying on humans cranking the handles!!!! No chance of fire either. Conventional roughing and climb finishing. We are using either 6 or 8 flute Tin coated carbide roughing endmills or insert cutters. We have to remove Ti chips by the shovel full every 15 minutes!!! ZOOOOOOOOM!! We stand there watching the machine going UH UH UH like Tim Allen on Home Improvement!!
Neil
EDIT: I forgot, this is at my full time job not here at Blackwood Knives!!!!!!
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[This message has been edited by Dr.Lathe (edited 30 November 1999).]
 
Yes Dr lathe I know the speed and feed thing is much faster on solid machinery.. most folks in this forum except for a few have to get by with less than great machines.
A half worn out bridgeport , no coolant ,
is about all I can afford. Still the climb milling works great.
As for the worn out mills (table slides and spindles) yikes! Even conventional milling is a chore.
The other limitation is spindle speeds .. Ole betsy only goes to 2200 rpm. If I crank up to 2200 the tooling burns up like fire crackers.
If I could go 5000 and 20 imp it might work fine. The tool wouldnt see the rpm or would remain cool because of the speed that the chip was being removed.
BUT I dont have coolant and the rpm and machine to get it.

We use to run 2024 t6 at 30,000 rpm and 300 imp with 1.5 in cutters.. YIKES chips everywhere. Those were cnc gantry mills .. Rugged and BIG..
Cant afford one of those babies on a knifemakers wages :[


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Web Site At www.infinet.com/~browzer/bldesmth.html
Take a look!!!




[This message has been edited by Darrel Ralph (edited 08 December 1999).]
 
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