Capabilty in steel Pm933vt mill

[Rangeraleg]

What have you experienced milling steel with the variable drive. . Debating variable vs gear drive. What can I expect from VT with a 3-4" face mill. Help ready to buy one or the other.
THANKS

 

[Christianstark]

On my 833TV I run out of machine weight and rigidity before the drive shows any sign of bogging down, but a geared head would certainly give more torque at lower speeds. I MAY be running my face mills hot though, so I can’t say for sure. I am still figuring out feeds and speeds.

 

[Tipton1965]

I MAY be running my face mills hot though, so I can’t say for sure. I am still figuring out feeds and speeds.

Feeds and speeds will all become 2nd nature with time. You will get to the point where you don't even have to look up feeds and speeds for certain material. You can set up feeds and speeds according to a book and over time you will actually memorize these settings for whatever material you are machining. A manual machine will give you cues both through sound and feel on the dials as to whether or not you have things set up correctly. I was out of the trade for 30 years and can't believe the muscle memory and sensitivity to how the machine is performing through sound and feel that I retained.

Have fun!

 

[Christianstark]

Today I was running a 3” face mill in mild steel. 30 thou doc at 300 RPM and no signs of bogging down. Getting a better surface finish at 560ish though. I use mist coolant. These are carbide insert face mills.I have found with these, taking a 10-20 thou cut to dimension is better than attempting to creep up. I would not take less than 5 in a pinch…but my inserts are general purpose ferrous, so they aren’t honed. I have been getting really nice results when I lock my column and finish with my quill. Most recent cut I got within .02 of a mm with a final DOC of 19 thou.

 

[Rangeraleg]

Today I was running a 3” face mill in mild steel. 30 thou doc at 300 RPM and no signs of bogging down. Getting a better surface finish at 560ish though. I use mist coolant. These are carbide insert face mills.I have found with these, taking a 10-20 thou cut to dimension is better than attempting to creep up. I would not take less than 5 in a pinch…but my inserts are general purpose ferrous, so they aren’t honed. I have been getting really nice results when I lock my column and finish with my quill. Most recent cut I got within .02 of a mm with a final DOC of 19 thou.

Thanks appreciate your help.

 

[Christianstark]

Here’s a 4” slow rpm pass on mild steel. Mill scale pass. 20 thou.

 

[Christianstark]

4” APKT finish cut. Honed for aluminum inserts 5 thou DOC on mild steel.

 

[Rangeraleg]

Thanks appreciate your help.

Thanks for the information. I think I will get the TV model. You said 4" face mill ,surprised very nice what is the cutter , and inserts. Where did you get them?

 

[Christianstark]

Thanks for the information. I think I will get the TV model. You said 4" face mill ,surprised very nice what is the cutter , and inserts. Where did you get them?

Just shars APKT 4” No through coolant, and I bought inserts on eBay.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mksj]

I would increase the RPM, I run a 4" face 7 cutter mill at around 3200 RPM on aluminum with a 0.050 or deeper DOC at around 10-12 IPM, in steel I would run around 1200-1600 RPM. When deeper shouldering with a 2.5" face mill I run 600-800 RPM and that is with 6 inserts. Look at the size and color of the chips coming off. On steel I usually am running 2.5" cutter heads. There is a sweet spot for machines depending on the size, rigidity, head geometry, cutter parameters and material. I often will look at the insert specifics, I usually start at 50% given the size/capacities of my machine.

This is the finish in 1018 with a 2.5" Haas face mill using their inserts which kind of look like WNMG but much larger. Cant recall the RPM, but it was probably in the 2000 RPM range.