Shop Old school stuff

[Stellrammer]

Trusty reference tool ,or just to confuse your customers who likely do not know what a slide rule is.

 

[DPittman]

Man that looks like appropriate technology for me. I've been playing around with machining calculator apps and I'd prefer that one so far over the app style.

 

[Stellrammer]

Man that looks like appropriate technology for me. I've been playing around with machining calculator apps and I'd prefer that one so far over the app style.

They are difficult to find as no one hands them out anymore, it was always faster than a digital calculator or control software.

 

[Xyphota]

That's neat! I'm constantly whipping my phone out to use the littlemachineshop speeds & feeds calculator, I'd love to use one of these to keep my oil+chip covered fingers off my phone.

 

[Former Member]

About 25 years ago I got introduced to an old machinist, tool and die type (whom I learnt a lot from), the first was discard the old feeds and speeds with current cutters, he was running speeds that initially shocked me. Basically what he said was crank up the rpm, increase the feed rate and use cooling. I haven't looked back since.

These older tools and tables are a good safe take off point though.

 

[Susquatch]

I like stuff like that too. I still have the slide rule I used in school before calculators came along.

Here is one similar to what I have on the wall behind my lathe. Little Loco sells them. It's a fairly big laminated chart. They have ones specifically setup for different lathes too.



I wish somebody would make a similar wall chart for my mill.

 

[Stellrammer]

About 25 years ago I got introduced to an old machinist, tool and die type (whom I learnt a lot from), the first was discard the old feeds and speeds with current cutters, he was running speeds that initially shocked me. Basically what he said was crank up the rpm, increase the feed rate and use cooling. I haven't looked back since.

These older tools and tables are a good safe take off point though,

 

[Stellrammer]

It’s important to reference manufacturers recommendation, sliders like these require input, such as SFM, Feed etc. I seldom guessed when doing demoes I already knew the parameters I was going to start with but in the field there are always variables. It can quickly tell you how far you can safely push knowing HP available, target metal removal rates etc to optimize or compromise.
So many variables to work with, speed, feed, depth width, insert type ,material, power, rigidity, coolant spindle orientation, a lot of juggling to get to where you need to be to give the best return for the money.

 

[Janger]

Trusty reference tool ,or just to confuse your customers who likely do not know what a slide rule is.View attachment 31085

Analog is seriously underrated in the digital age. It’s making a bit of a come back here and there. LP records. I love those paper slide calculators. I had one for car fuel mileage - where did it ever go?

 

[Janger]

@Stellrammer the name on your paper calculator is stellram… hmm coincidence? What is going on here?

 

[DPittman]

@Stellrammer the name on your paper calculator is stellram… hmm coincidence? What is going on here?

Ha I was going to ask the same but I assumed I was missing something obvious and didn't want to be redundant or sound foolish (as I often do).

 

[Susquatch]

Analog is seriously underrated in the digital age. It’s making a bit of a come back here and there. LP records. I love those paper slide calculators. I had one for car fuel mileage - where did it ever go?

Man does that ever echo for me.

As one of the guys who helped bring digital to the masses, I miss analog dearly. My fondest wish is that both could live in peace and harmony. But it seems like the rest of the world is working hard to get rid of all things analog. This despite the fact that we are all analog creatures at heart.

 

[little ol' e]

I'm sure some guys here know,
Stellram had some good stuff out in the mid 90's. They went downhill fast when they switched to the index style inserts on the button cutter shell mills.
I knocked the pin out of the holder due to cracking of the inserts, however, the inserts still wouldn't stand up to anything we threw at them after the changes.
Many, stopped using them at the time and switched to Ingersoll, Mitsubishi, Die Jet and the like.
Heck, you could smoke a Mitsubishi holder back then and they would replace it at no cost if you recall?
Oh, the printed money was good back then lol...

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I have a kennametal one like that. I thinks it's a great tool to really understand the relationships between SFM, Diameter, RPM and chipload. The physical and visual aspect of that helps drive it home much better than numbers on a screen for some people, myself included. I keep it to teach new people to CNC what the numbers mean and how they relate to each other, and it's fun to see the lightbulb go off sometimes. Even for manual machinists that don't truly understand the science behind the numbers and rely on feel, and senses to make chips. IMO it's one of the most misunderstood, and mistaught aspects of CNC, and results in a lot of unnecessarily broken endmills.

 

[Former Member]

With the newer machines giving feed back on loads in all forms, it has became easier for those wanting to push the limits well beyond what used to be and is recommended and set new standards for each application.

For us mire mortals that don't have this, feel, sound, finish, cutter life let us creep up on similar values.

I must add that going from manual, power feed to simple CNC, my feeds have increased with better results and longer tool life. Why, significantly more consistent feed.

Currently the limiting factor is motor and machine stiffness.

 

[PaulL]

Ok, I want one. It look like I'm going to have to write the little bit of code to generate the slide rules and then print and fold. If that works, I'll laminate up a bunch for Christmas ;-)

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I forgot I had a few of them.

The Kennametal ones have the same info, they're just different versions.

 

[DPittman]

Ok, I want one. It look like I'm going to have to write the little bit of code to generate the slide rules and then print and fold. If that works, I'll laminate up a bunch for Christmas ;-)

I wanna be on your Christmas list

 

[Stellrammer]

I'm sure some guys here know,
Stellram had some good stuff out in the mid 90's. They went downhill fast when they switched to the index style inserts on the button cutter shell mills.
I knocked the pin out of the holder due to cracking of the inserts, however, the inserts still wouldn't stand up to anything we threw at them after the changes.
Many, stopped using them at the time and switched to Ingersoll, Mitsubishi, Die Jet and the like.
MarketHeck, you could smoke a Mitsubishi holder back then and they would replace it at no cost if you recall?
Oh, the printed money was good back then lol...

The index style button insert that relied on the pin was a European thing forced on the North American market, it was not conducive to business in the Mould and Die industry. IIRC that was a late development though, 2006? I strongly objected but was overruled. However it was well accepted in the turbine industry milling heat resistant materials.
I made excellent bonus dollars flogging the High feed cutters, nearly unbeatable in P20, and certainly in titanium , stainless , Inconel. We had some tremendous successes in Aerospace world wide up until I left unwillingly in 2013. I think that program was a main factor in Kennametal buying us out
I recall many protests over the button cutters, I’m sure I was involved with your shop over it at some point, I had no defense of it and could only agree, I was never one to push something I didn’t believe in.

 

[Janger]

Lots of interesting members on the forum. Thanks for joining @Stellrammer .