Cutting 4” hole in stainless?

[Rich Carlstedt]

To me , doing in a bridgeport mill was not too bad, ( 3/4 " SS Plate and RT ) but at work, we trapanned the hole with trapan bits

Pardon Our Interruption

well worth the use compared to hand ground or normal tool bits.
Be aware , some of the methods mentioned earlier require House Power if you want fast times
Rich

 

[stupoty]

What about a water jet and then a boring head to size.

A metal supplier I use a lot is always saying how amazing their fiber laser is and it should cut almost entirely accurately (depending upon required tolerance)

Stu

 

[Rich Carlstedt]

I think the link I gave above in post 21 did not work or reflect what I wanted
We used carbide bits in the lathe which are very effective and much faster than doing mill work
The link I have is for a MSC listing for a product to display . We used Kennametal tooling in the shop
Rich

try this

Pardon Our Interruption

Rich

 

[MikeInOr]

40 holes. Plasma deforms the part. Tried it but customer said no! I ordered a carbide cutter from Mutual be here tomorrow. I’ll report if it’s going to work. I’m drilling and turning them on the Lathe now but an hour and a half per. Broke 3 inserts already….316L is a booger to work.

Is the cutter from Mutual working at all? Or was it a bum suggestion?

 

[pontiac428]

40 holes is enough to consider farming out to water jet. No heat issues and you can finish the bores as needed in a second op on the lathe. It would probably reduce surface hardening at the cut compared to other methods. Of course if you already have a bunch of parts, the setup and run costs will be higher on water than if you were cutting from plate from the start. Just spitballin' ideas.