pic: 696 Teaser 1

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by Cory

My strategy with gearbox plates is to not pocket and to contour slugs that drop out. You have to do this in the vise operation before you bolt it to your toolplate though.

At any rate I don't think HSM is gaining you much there. You could easily run 40% stepover full depth at 6k RPM and 54 IPM and only be limited by the rigidity of your machine, which I think would be fine. I routinely run those same parameters except at 10k RPM and 100 IPM.

I try to pre-drill plunge points for all my pockets whenever possible, to avoid potential edge chipping during plunging or the added time of helical entry. When I do helix I use the feed speed and 2-3*.

$@#$@#$@#$@# I wish I had an machine that could do 10k.....

I was just running some parts similar to this on a Tormach P1100 was getting up to 5000rpm, with .1 DOC @ 50ipm with a 2 flute carbid 1/4 70% stepover. Just without HSM toolpathing which doesn't seem to gain you for a lot of the parts we have to run. Though I was doing a full pocket since I already was bolted to a tooling plate.