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Finally got a clean finish on that tricky 6061 part after messing with the feed rate
Kept getting chatter marks on a deep pocket job for a local shop in Dayton. On a hunch, I dropped the feed from 80 IPM to 65 and bumped the spindle speed up by 200 RPM. The finish came out smooth as glass on the next run. Anyone else found a sweet spot for aluminum with a 3/8" carbide end mill?
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sandra_black4mo ago
Always thought more feed was better for chip clearing, especially in deep pockets. Watched a guy run a job way slower than I would have and got perfect results. Now I'm a total convert to backing off the feed and letting the tool do the work, just like you found. That balance is everything with aluminum.
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christopher_coleman171mo ago
Took the same lesson from a deep pocket job in 6061 where I was burning through endmills way too fast. Dropped the feed around 20% and suddenly got perfect stringy chips that cleared themselves without any bird nests. That little tweak saved me on tooling costs and cycle time stayed about the same since I could bump up the RPM a touch.
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christopher674mo ago
Guess @sandra_black and I both learned the hard way that aluminum loves a chill feed rate, lmao.
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