CNC West Feb March 2019

CNC WEST February/March 2019 www.CNC-West.com 45 mon practice regardless of material. “We are using a 5 flute end mill for high speed machining on aluminum,” describes Sanjeev. “Most people use a 2 or a 3 flute con- ventional tool.” More flutes offer them the ability to ma- chine at a much higher speed. “High speed machining is taking a smaller cut, but going much faster,” continues Sanjeev. “You have less wear on the tooling, less wear on the machine, no chip trapping issues, and less load on the part. We cut at 600” a minute, only taking 30, 40, or 50 thou axial cut at a time. The load on everything is very light and we get way better life out of everything involved. We have fewer tool changes and they never break. It is a very stable process allowing you to predict life expectancy regardless of the job. If a tool lasted for so many cutting hours on this part, it will last that many cut hours on any part because the process is the same. We monitor loads on all the tools so before the tool breaks we change it out. That is pretty standard practice in shops running large di- ameter tooling, but it is rare that you see it on small tool- ing like we use. A larger tool has the ability to break and do a lot of damage, but for us we use it to get the absolute most life out of the tool and replace it before it breaks and shuts down the machine.” At 600” a minute, tooling is a key element when it comes to producing a quality part. Sanjeev relies on Jona- than Saada of High Speed Corp to help him get the most out of his tooling investments. “Jonathan has so much ex- perience, he is a wealth of information,” describes Sanjeev. “I’ve known him for many, many years and I always make the time to talk to him when he comes by. That is not the case with most sales people. He introduced us to YG1 tooling about a year ago and I’m so glad he did. We’ve seen an increase in tool life and a decrease in tool pricing across the board.” Sanjeev touts the reason he has Haas and Mazaks is because he can hold one tenth all day long when needed. He has always had the policy that if you need a pistol, he’d rather have a rocket launcher. This 4140 part has a hardness of 40 Rockwell. Previous tooling only yielded a maximum of 8 parts per corner of the insert. The new YG1 inserts are delivering 24 parts per corner of the insert and cost less than half. SKM has switched over and uses YG1 inserts whenever possible, regardless of materials.