rayc83•12d ago

Found a stat on tool deflection that made me double check all my parts

I was reading through some machining forums last night and stumbled on a study from a tooling company that said 80% of tolerance issues in CNC work come from tool deflection, not the machine itself. That hit me hard because I've been blaming our old Haas for a bunch of bad parts when it's probably my speeds and feeds. They measured deflection on a 1/4 inch end mill sticking out 2 inches and it was almost 0.005 inches under normal cutting load. That's huge for tight tolerance work. Now I'm going back and checking every program I've run this month to see where I could be pushing the tool too hard. Has anyone else seen actual numbers on how much their tools flex during a cut?

2 comments

2 Comments

cooper.spencer12d ago

Did the study mention if tool runout made that deflection worse or was that just from side load? Ive always wondered how much of my tool wobble is deflection vs just a worn collet.

river1839d ago

Can you check if your holder taper is clean? I had the same doubt until I found a chip in mine.