Edge Milling 2" Thick 6061 Aluminum Plate - Tormach CNC

Tormach on the web @ http://www.tormach.com

Overview:
A 3/4" diameter end mill is used to radius the corners of a thick plate, then the same end mill is used on a finish cut, finishing the 2" edge in one pass.

Material: 6061 Aluminum
Cutter: 3/4" 4 flute end mill
Titanium Nitride (TiN)
Speed: 500 RPM
Feed: 4 IPM
Machine: Tormach PCNC 1100

Background:
It is hard to define the operating limits of milling machine. The performance envelope is never black and white and success in the gray area depends on understanding the demands of the task at hand. In this particular case the desire to leave a good finish on the 2" face required at least 3/4" diameter end mill. Any smaller and the tool flex would have been excessive. Edge milling and finishing operations on 2" 6061 billet is not something we would recommend as a primary role for a 1.5 HP spindle, but if the machine frame is rigid enough, the task is certainly possible.

Fixtures & Tooling:
The particular task at hand was to put a radius the corners of a 2" thick block, followed by a full depth finish cut. The PCNC 1100 mill has been designed with frame rigidity that exceeds the stresses introduced by the 1.5 HP spindle. As such, we expected the spindle horsepower to be the limiting factor, not the machine frame or axis motion power.

Read more:
http://www.tormach.com/MfgDatabase/20107_Milling_6061_Plate.pdf

Key words:
Tormach, CNC, 6061, aluminum, heavy cutting, billet, finish cut, edge milling, R8, rigidity, end mill, horsepower, HP.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Tormach
• CNC
• 6061
• Aluminum
• heavy
• cutting
• billet
• finish
• cut
• edge
• milling
• R8
• rigidity
• end
• mill
• horsepower
• HP

[MrVlekie]

sooooo slowww and with colant

[jprobst6]

I understand this is a "less expensive" machine but I would highly recommend not using a 4 flute cutter on aluminum.

[JTMarlin8]

Yea, pretty slow.  The machine was removing under 1.0 ci/min. Most decent VMCs will easily do 25-50, and a premium machine with a 50 taper will do over 100ci/min.

[dmitrysorkin]

Fully tooled, with coolant, enclosure, everything, this mill runs about $11k. $7.5k for the base model. I owned one of the first models. It ran beautifully. If you want to run this job 10 times faster, get ready to pay for a machine that costs 10 times more. Just something to keep in mind.

[alanu23]

9999@178 3 flt. carbide

[alanu23]

9999 @ 178 carbide 3 flt.

[imach1]

...or 12000 and 3 (mtrs/min) ;-)

[captain2231]

too slow!!!!

[dleonard05]

Ha should be usn 2 flt carbide at 12,000 and 120

[robbyrob304]

why 4-flute?