[Apples]

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How fast would a mill have to spin to cut mild steel like this at 1" deep at these speeds?

Peter

[Apples]

sorry , try this?

[ame="http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=3690284645118273250&q=machining+st eel&total=91&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plind ex=1"]CNC MACHINING STEEL[/ame]

[DSL PWR]

Most carbide endmills like to spin at about 600sfm. For a 1" endmill it would be turning at about 2300rpm.

[Apples]

so how much hp does that mill have in the movie you think?

I am looking at 3 or 5hp mills, and wondering if I could cut mild steel at 1" depth of cut at those speeds???

Peter

[Apples]

how deep was the depth of cut in that movie?

[toastydeath]

That's a high speed machining video.

You'd need around 20 horsepower, a 12k+ rpm spindle, and a pretty expensive indexable endmill. That kind of machining is not something you just walk up to a machine and start doing, you actually need to understand what is going on and why. The depth of cut is between .250 and .5.

1" depth of cut is completely out of the question at those speeds, for a variety of reasons.

By 3-5 hp, I assume you mean a knee mill. Even in a VMC format, a 5 hp machine does not have the oomph to handle high speed machining in any capacity. If you are thinking of machining steel in one pass 1" deep, forget it. Most mills with 3-5 hp won't handle a 1" cut in steel at any speed.

[Apples]

hmm, I thought someone was going to say that that was a big 20hp.

Just trying to workout the limitations of a knee mill and what you can and can't do with them.

[toastydeath]

Knee mills are for places who have light machining requirements and a lot of time on their hands to wait for the machine to finish what it's doing. They're good machines for home shops and places where machinery needs to be repaired. They've often got a control capable of "user friendly" conversational control.

High speed machining and the associated machines are for places who need a whole rack of parts, now, and preferably yesterday. The machines are priced accordingly.

People who come from aluminum and plastic machining usually want things to be done now, goddamnit, just like aluminum and plastic. That's not a hit against those folks, it's just that steel just doesn't machine at "now goddamnit" speeds on your average VMC, and certainly not on a bridgeport.