CNC Tooling

[Mr. Lim]

Originally Posted by scottandme

Don,

Look at the Onsrud catalog - the 63-600 product line is probably what you want to pick up. McMaster sells them if you search for "Router Bits for Aluminum" - "Grooving and Slotting". They're 1 flute solid carbide. The biggest issues with routers are going to be chip evacuation and and getting lubrication on the tool.

The 1-flute tools are nice because they give plenty of space to evacuate chips, and you don't have to run them at a high feed rate to maintain a proper chip load on the cutter to prevent it from rubbing. Depending on the construction (ball screws? rack and pinion?), your machine will probably be happier at lower feed rates and acceleration rates.

You'll definitely need something to get evacuate chips and provide a little lubrication on the tool. Otherwise you'll be re-cutting chips and getting a built up edge on the cutting tool - leading it to load up with aluminum and come to an untimely end. We're picking up a micro-drop coolant system (Trico Md-1200), which is like a mister, but instead of a constant stream of mist, it shoots small droplets of lubricant along with an air blast. They're more expensive than mist systems, but seem to clear chips better and don't make as big of a mess. Regular misting systems tend to linger in the air, and breathing that stuff isn't the greatest. At the very least look into a Fogbuster system to minimize that, or good ventilation.

Second the Onsrud single flute cutters. They have been life-changers for our CNC Router. We run our spindle at 18,00 RPM with these same 63-XXX series Onsrud cutters, and they are incredible. Chip clearing performance was key in getting nice finishes on our cuts - and the feed rates we can run with these cutters are pretty aggressive too.

Our CNC Router came with a Unist Mister as an option, and we consider it a must when cutting aluminum. Mr. Stehlik here at 610 has been a big fan of the mist coolant approach and Unist misters in general, and has outfitted our metal chop saw, mill and lathe all with similar Unist misters. I don't think we've used a bottle of coolant all year long, clean-up has been easier, less machine corrosion, and the cut qualities have probably been better overall.

Here's a link to our Canadian supplier for the Onsrud cutters:
http://www.cncroutershop.com/ca/inde...us-metals.html

A not very useful picture and description of our router's mister setup from the manufacturer:
http://www.axyz.com/us/secondary-options/
...but if you read between the lines, it setup not as a continuous mister, but as in the post above it periodically dispenses droplets of coolant through a pulse generator.

A link to Unist's line-up of misters:
http://unist.com/solutions/machining-cutting.html