Switched from a dry climb to a climb mill pass on my last job

I had to pick between conventional milling and climb milling for finishing some aluminum parts last week on my Haas. Went with climb milling and the surface finish came out way smoother with less tool deflection. Has anyone else seen a big difference switching between the two on aluminum?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam_baker2d ago

Oh man, climb milling on aluminum is like cheating on a test and getting an A. I tried the same switch on a batch of 6061 plates and my finish went from looking like a cat scratched it to mirror smooth. My machine even stopped making that scary chatter noise, which was a nice bonus for my blood pressure. Still blew a tool the next day by being too greedy with the depth of cut though, so I can't claim I've got it all figured out yet.

danielr992d ago

Did you use any coolant or just send it dry?

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morgan.jason1d ago

Yeah "cheating on a test and getting an A" is exactly how it feels haha. It's funny how sometimes the "wrong" way in the textbook actually works better in real life, like when I figured out that washing jeans inside out keeps the color way longer even though the tag says something else. You just kind of learn by breaking stuff and seeing what happens.