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A tool salesman's comment about spindle load made me rethink my feeds
I was at a local machine shop open house in Grand Rapids last Tuesday, just killing time between jobs, and this old school tool rep watched me set up a part. He said something like, 'You're running that like you're afraid of the machine, and it's costing you money.' At first I brushed it off, but then I looked at my spindle load readings on a few recent runs and realized I was barely pushing 40 percent on roughing passes that should be hitting 70 or 80. I've been doing this for 12 years and always thought I was being careful, protecting the tooling and the spindle. But he pointed out that the load meter is basically free feedback, and if you're not using it, you're just guessing. I went back and bumped up my feed rate on a 6061 job by 20 percent and the finish was actually better, plus I cut 15 minutes off a 2 hour cycle. Has anyone else had that moment where a sales guy actually gave you something useful, or am I the only one who slept on spindle load data?
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the_gray21d ago
That 40 percent number is the part that gets me, because it means your spindle was basically coasting through the cut while the tool rubbed instead of sliced. Bumping feed 20 percent helped the finish because now the chip is thick enough to carry heat away instead of letting it soak into the part and the edge. The real move is to keep pushing until you hit that 70 to 80 range, then back off just enough that the load stays steady through the whole pass.
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