After a very long build I finally have my Boss5 converted and running. I am trying to cut some holes in .5 steel and having problems. I am using a 3/4 solid carbide 4 flute endmill and trying to use a helical tool path to get through the material then spiral out to final diameter. The problem I am having is that shortly after the cutter starts to engage the material the spindle stalls. What seems to be happening is that the High/ low lever seems to be going into the neutral position. The first time it happened I thought maybe I didn't have it completely engaged but it happened again. Just wasted 2 endmills (OUCH) and only have one more. I am using g wizard to calculate my feeds and speeds. Spindle speed is 1210 feed is around 15 ipm with a helical toolpath diameter of .75 and a 3 degree ramp angle. I had assumed that the material was mild steel. after having issues i realized that it may be AR400. A file test makes me think it's probably mild steel as it seems to "notch" fairly easily with the corner of a file. I am hoping someone may have some pointers for me as I'm kind of under the gun to get these done for one of our machines. At this point I'm wondering if I should get one of our mag drill bits and use it to start the hole then just enlarge with the mill.
Thank you!