wow... this conversation sure got a little heated, eh?... all this over some threading cycles...
nickel 200 is just gummy... it's nowhere near as ugly as 45Rc heat treated inconel 718...
I had a guy bring in a piece of vascomax and thought it was kryptonite (considering it's got 9.25% cobalt in it)... I ran his ugly 1" rougher end mill 3/4" deep full slotting on a 15hp machine. He was wondering why the machine left a step on the bottom of the floor (I did the slot then went back on both sidewalls and you could see a dish/step). Turns out the end mill was working so hard it was twisting to the left LoL.
17-4ph isn't really that nasty... machine it dry at about 475sfm, .004-.007ipt on insertable end mills and they'll last for a good long time
. I love when people make all these quibbles about machining Ti6Al4V and how you can't go over 175-180sfm yadda yadda yadda... i've run that stuff at 250sfm with good results using Hanita Varimills
sorry, i'm just rambling... I love metal talk