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Best steel shaping option

F

Feeop

Active Member
Hi everyone.

I have a piece of steel (appears to be hot rolled). It's 38.5mm x 38.5mm x 85mm and I need to reduce it to 30x30x82.

The machines I have available are a benchtop mini mill (King vs15) and a DMC2 Mini CNC and unfortunately, I'm not properly setup (yet) to cut the excess off with a saw.

Questions: (Keeping in mind any option will probably take a while).

1. Which would be the better machine and best process.
2. If CNC, which is better, Face mill it off or 2D Contour?
3. If Mill, what would be a good DOC?

Thanks. Always open to suggestions.
Cheers
 
I'd use your mill and a 1/2" endmill (I'd use a bigger end mill on a bigger machine). I'd take everything off but a cleanup pass off in one go and I'd work my way across in 1/4" passes. When I did my cleanup, I'd go just under full width of the 1/2" endmill - that or use a fly cutter or face mill to clean it all off in one pass. On the other side, only a cleanup is needed but maybe not even that.
 
The first thing I'd ask is how precise does this have to be? Not clear if mentioning a saw means "get it close then clean up" or "saw is already close enough". Based on nothing, I'm guessing the 82mm might be more fussy than the width & length?
 
mickeyf said:
The first thing I'd ask is how precise does this have to be? Not clear if mentioning a saw means "get it close then clean up" or "saw is already close enough". Based on nothing, I'm guessing the 82mm might be more fussy than the width & length?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.
Looking at mm precision and the 82mm is flexible +/- 1mm. It's the 30mm I need to get as close as possible. I usually consider my machines +/- 0.2mm
 
Well the verdict is in. I made a part (or the first step)
I ended up using a 10mm roughing mill at 885 rpm and 225mm/min (hand feed), DOC=5.775mm, Stepover=4.5mm. and cleaned it up with the fly cutter (first time using)
Took a bit but turned out OK for first real part. Now I need to work on the feeds and speeds.

The part ended at 29.78x30.3x81.99. Close enough for this project.

Cheers and thanks
 

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