How's it going? I never did get my fishing licsense. Maybe we can go in the fall. I hope everything is going good for you.

You using a Tapmatic for that? I could probably get away with a 1/4 tap going that SFM but any smaller and the threads would come out like sh!t; none of my machines like rigid tapping much over 1000 RPM.

I machine alot of Aluminum clutch componants and the accupros never fail me. We do use shrink fit holders as well so I'm sure that improves performance alone.

I personally run 150SFM or so when drilling aluminum with HSS or HSCO because I usually run out of RPM with the smaller drills anyway

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You should be running that drill much faster than 1,900 RPM. The only time you would want to reduce this is if the tool has a long overhang.

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Great in Heavy Radial Efficiency Milling (HREM) applications of Titanium 6Al4V and other titanium alloys, these fully stocked, square profile Variable Helix End Mills decrease chatter and harmonics.

Hey Justin, Doing good. Making parts for the drag racing industry is pretty interesting. Got to meet Warren and Kurt Johnson at our shop a few weeks ago. We are building a Nitro funny car that will run in the Nostalgia class and the first race is in a few weeks at Atco Dragway. If you want to go let me know. I just finished machining the clutch componants for it and I'm anxious to see it go down the track. Give me a call!

Great in Heavy Radial Efficiency Milling (HREM) applications of Titanium 6Al4V and other titanium alloys, these fully stocked, square profile Variable Helix End Mills decrease chatter and harmonics.

This is a 4 flute high performance endmill for steel. For aluminum I would suggest a 3 flute "Viper" made by destiny tool. 3 flutes will allow for better chip evacuation and the tool won't build up. There are also many other high performance endmills for aluminum made by SGS, Accupro, OSG etc. There catalogs will give you reccommended feeds and speeds. With the Viper your only limmitation will be the max RPM of your machine.

Did somebody here actually advocate for an Accupro endmill? C'mon; those things are junk. OSG, Dataflute, SGS [but the SkiCarb is the aluminum job, not a Z-Carb], RobbJack, and I have heard good stuff about those Destiny tools but never actually seen one.

As for your gold drill, my OSG book has that drill listing for allum. casting (doesnt have a speed/feed index for 6061 for some reason)... 4670 RPM (for a 7/32" drill..close enough) and .012" - .017" feed / tooth.

I routinely program for 300 spm on drills in alum., but limit speeds to 6000rpm on the smaller stuff. For end mills I run 1000-1200 spm with carbide and not much slower for HSS in the smaller sizes. Inserted 90 deg. end mills run way faster,(Iscar Heli-Alu 1.25" 2fl. runs 10k, and 230ipm, full slot, .25 deep in our CAT40 spindles) we run mostly 7045 and 7050.

The Tapmatic that I'm talking about is a constant speed, self-reversing setup that prevents the CNC from needing to stop and reverse the spindle for every hole. The stop-and-reverse is the part of tapping that's hard on a machine and the more SFM you're running, the more difficult it is.

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3 flute, Centercutting, High Performance, single end, "Flat or Bullnose endmill" with zirconium coating, 3/8 diameter or bigger.

For a #7 drill you can run about .001-.003 per tooth. Let's use .002 per tooth. On a 2 flute drill this would be .004 per revolution.

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They are not as good or "as exspensive" as SGS or Destiny, but my experience with them has been that they last forever, hold size, and leave a great finish.

Harvey Tool Flat Bottom Counterbores, perfect for castings, rounded parts, concaved, or drafted surfaces, are available in multiple flute lengths, coatings, and in long reach. These tools allow you to spot effectively, hold position, and control the finish left on the part.

I have mostly been doing lathe programming the past 2 years in this position, but am starting to do a little more mill programming. I prevesly ran, setup, programmed, ect HMC's for a German Machine tool builder and management loved to see those Aluminum chips flying at high feed rates. Everything there was metric so dealing with feed rates in English still has me dividing everything by 25.4 to see about what speed that is compared to the HMC's I ran. Today I was reprogramming a part that was programmed out in the shop and I noticed the feeds and speed are way off from what I believe the Haas VF4 can handle for Aluminum, they look about right for mild steel. The drill that were using are coated HSS drills, along with the spade bit. Anyone have any thought on what speeds and feeds they would recommend for this .312 thick piece of 6061-T6 running in a Haas VF-4, "no Hass bashing please"

has an interesting little tab at their website. the link's called metal cutting data but the doc it pulls up is "discussing some metals cutting myths"

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I have not tried the tools you listed, Justin, and we cut very little aluminum these days, but my experience with Accupro in our materials is that they are worth what you pay for them, which ain't much. That's why they make choclate and vanilla, I guess!

I have been testing alot of OSG drills lately and have had great success with them. In 4130 I am using a .25" - 20x diameter drill going 3600 rpm & 15 IPM (although the book calls for much higher...I think 37 IPM!!!). Cuts like butter. I am sure if I can use extended length drills in steel at this speed you could do well to hit close to your machine max for drilling them small holes. =] And we tap everthing here (cept for Inconel). Fette taps run at 80 SFM and just blitz into that hole and out. Scares the crap outta everyone, but works fantastic!

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Sorry Chris, I dont know what a tapmatic is...? Is that a floating tap holder? If so, then no, we rigid tap on all our machines (save for the 30 year old ones we still have) and it works just great =]

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Harvey Tool is committed to designing unique geometries that optimize cutting performance for a variety of materials and applications. We introduce hundreds of new tools to the market every 6 months, offering our customers the solutions they need most.

Our fully stocked inventory is ready to ship the day of its purchase. We offer second day delivery at ground pricing, and any overnight orders ship until 7 p.m., EST.

You are 100% correct. I'm just trying to think of all the ridicules answers I will get when I ask why they are using that tool. "its what we always use", "have not had any problems with it", "it don't build up chips". What do I know, I'm just a 24 year old with 7 years in this business

I have only tried Accupro in aluminum, limmited to the endmills I listed. I still stand by the Viper over any other endmill for aluminum. We are starting to use them for every job now.

HSS tools should be run about 4 times slower than carbide. Typical cutting speed for aluminum is about 300 sfm for HSS tools and about 1200 sfm for carbide. So for your #7(.201) drill, you would take the surface cutting speed, multiply by 12, then divide by Pi x Diameter.

Cutting aluminum [or anything, really] in a CNC machine with HSS or HSCO endmills is just wrong; using that endmill that you have listed I'd be looking at 6112RPM as long as you have a reasonable hold on things. If you're just counterboring or something I'd keep the feedrates down or you won't have the best looking holes.