vertical face mill
vertical face mill
(OP)
we have a large piece of stainless steel (15"x40"x5/8") and we are face milling the top of the piece. We only have the x and y corridinates confined with hex nuts, that sit below the surface of the plate against its walls,
if the we are only face milling the x and y plane of the piece of steel is it necessary to confine the z direction of the plate?
if the we are only face milling the x and y plane of the piece of steel is it necessary to confine the z direction of the plate?





RE: vertical face mill
Clamp in the vertical plane using:
1. vacuum bed arrangement, see propriety brands in the market
2. Use a wedge type clamp that exerts a downward pressure as you tighten down
If you are the supervising engineer and have no experience just ask your skilled workers and they will advise you. But you never never contemplate machining a plate unless it is locked on the three axis of possible movement. Being a machinist means you have mastered the basic art of understanding mechanics and how to apply these principles, they are not demanding a superior brain just a basic average intelligence with a common sense application of that knowledge.
Even using the 2 methods listed above great care must be shown in how heavy a cut you put onto the workpiece.
RE: vertical face mill
RE: vertical face mill
Several swing-over clamps to hold down in the areas where the mill is not currently cutting, would be my choice. Swing the clamps out of the way as the cut progresses across the piece, and reclamp behind the cut.
Ornerynorsk also has a pretty good idea, I have had others tell me the cam-action edge clamps hold well.
RE: vertical face mill
more than 75% of the content typically would be iron...
RE: vertical face mill
RE: vertical face mill
When using stainless steel that has a small magnetic element in its composition then very light cuts have to be used, else disastrous events can occur.
RE: vertical face mill
RE: vertical face mill
RE: vertical face mill
RE: vertical face mill
If you have the room you can make up blocks to clamp to the table and use an M20 tapped hole with a bolt. Drill the tapped hole slightly downward, say 5 degrees and the bolt will pinch and press into the side of the work-piece, place adequate stops on the work-piece and make sure when you side clamp to shim so there is no bending introduced at that point. use a small diameter face mill rather than a large diameter,say 75 mm or 100 mm and take 1mm depth of cut at an insert loading of 5 thou per tooth per rev. Machine 316 around 100 metres peripheral speed. For final machining reduce the insert loading to 2 thou per tooth.
Use a suck it and see approach, if this loading and depth of cut works with no chatter or movement then you may increases the depth of cut. If the billet of steel is not very heavy then grinding is the best approach even if you have the additional cost of sub contracting out.
It is possible to purchase proprietary brands of side clamps similar to a vice, that you clamp to the bed with an adjustment similar to a one sided vice. Buck and Hickman may have them.
I hope this has been of help and can't think of any other advice to offer.