I finally swapped to HSS endmills for aluminum after fighting with carbide for a year

Ran a job last month making 200 brackets out of 6061 on a Haas VF-2. Carbide kept chattering no matter what feeds or speeds I tried, and I burned through three $40 tools on the first 50 parts. Switched to a cheap $12 HSS endmill and it cut smooth as butter at 6000 rpm, no chipping at all. Finished the whole order on one tool. Anyone else stick with one tool type for a specific material and feel stupid for not trying the other sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

martinez.karen14d ago

Had the exact same thing happen with stainless steel a few years back. Spent months blaming the machine until I finally tried a coated carbide with a different helix angle, still chipped like crazy. Ended up using a stubby HSS roughing endmill running super slow with lots of coolant and it just plowed through everything no problem. Made me feel like a real rookie.

milesp3813d ago

Made me feel like a real rookie" - yeah, I know that feeling just from watching. Buddy of mine runs a small shop out of his garage and he was going through carbide endmills on some 304 like they were sold in bulk at Costco. Chipping, breaking, the whole deal. He tried a weird coated one with some fancy geometry, still ate shit after a few passes. Finally called his old man who's been doing this since the 80s. Old dude drove over, grabbed a HSS rougher out of his truck, ran it at like 80 SFM with a heavy flood of coolant, and beat that job like it owed him money. Made my buddy's whole setup look like a toy. We still laugh about it when we grab beers.