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Hard milling vs conventional on 6061 aluminum - night and day difference
I ran the same job in both modes on my Haas VF-2 last Tuesday and the surface finish was way better with climb milling. Tool wear was also way less after 50 parts. Am I missing something or do most folks here just default to climb for aluminum?
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the_spencer1d ago
...and that's exactly when the part launches itself across the shop and you spend the next hour trying to find where it landed. I've seen guys get real religious about conventional milling after a 6061 part decided it wanted to be a projectile. Honestly though, I think the whole debate is just a way for machinists to justify their favorite way of making chips fly. You get a good finish either way if your speeds and feeds are dialed in, but climb milling just feels like cheating when it works.
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julia5493d ago
Conventional milling is actually better than people give it credit for with 6061 if you're dealing with thin wall sections or parts that are clamped down sketchy. Climb milling on a Haas that isn't dialed in perfectly can pull the work right out of the vise or make chatter worse on thin features. I've seen guys run conventional on purpose just to keep the tool from digging in and snapping on the first pass. You might be seeing less tool wear now but wait until you get a batch of 6061 that has some hard spots or a dull cutter that starts rubbing with climb milling. Surface finish can be just as good with conventional if you bump up the feed and keep the chip load consistent.
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