[rchprks]

any body have any experience with machining dc53 tool steel after it has been hardened. i have to use 3/8 and 1/4 ballnose coated carbide as it is a 3 axis form type of detail, lots of radii.
thanks
rick

[svenakela]

Don't know the specific material, but milling in hardened steel usually is hopeless.

Regards,
Sven

[rchprks]

sven! i have to disagree as i machine hardened tool steels all the time,the trick is leavind .oo5 stock after ruughing it in then useing carbide tools with the proper coating and a slow to medium rpm amd feed rare. 6150 tool steelis a snap, but d2 and m2 pose a challenge. the dc53 i mentioned in my eailer post is a type of steel i have never worked with and i was just wondering if any one in this great orginisation had worked with it before soft or hard

as always thanks for any input
rick

[Chuck Reamer]

The only time I ever heard of DC 53, is when we needed it to do a small stamping die section. About a dozen small (.06x.187) 1" deep punches with .06" in between each punch. It worked great for that application were A2 and D2 just wouldnt hold up.

I know you can get endmills that are for steels up to 65 rockwell C, just make sure you have a high precision collet for it. What are you using the DC 53 for???

[rchprks]

chuck!
the detail is a form section in a progressive die, their is a radius that keeps on cracking,(a lot of pressure on it) we've tried d2 m2 and s7 with about the same luck, it lasts for about 40-50,000 hits then starts cracking. the die maker grinds the crack out and sends it out to a really good welder .then i re machine it. i just made 2 new ones (with .010 stock on all surfaces ) out of dc53 when it comes back it gets ground all around ,then the wire guy does his majic on it then i get it for final machining. i was just wondering what to expect if i use speeds and feed for d2 to machine it this is the first time i have ever heard of the stuff. soft it machines better than d2.

any comments (or guesses) will be appreciated.
rick parkes
chi psweeper

[Chuck Reamer]

In a hard state it will machine similar to D2 hardend. The endmills we had were from kennametal and they could take light cuts on A2 or D2 at 60-63 RC.

[svenakela]

sven! i have to disagree as i machine hardened tool steels all the time, ...

I didn't write impossible, I wrote hopeless.