Chat with a veteran machinist changed my view on speeds and feeds

Old Frank at the shop caught me running a 1/2 endmill way too fast on some 4140 prehard. He said, "Slow down, you're burning the tool, not cutting metal." His numbers were way lower than what I always used, but the surface finish came out perfect. Has anyone else had to unlearn what the textbooks said about feeds?

2 comments

2 Comments

riley_miller253d ago

Textbooks give you a baseline for a reason. If you chase finish every time you'll burn through tooling way faster than needed. Old timers have tricks that work for them but production shops run by the numbers for a reason.

robinson.hannah3d ago

@riley_miller25 you're acting like one wrong finish pass cracks the space-time continuum or something.