Hello all,
TL;DR: I'm wondering if you all could provide some insight on your preferred tooling standards for working with cast materials.
I've recently taken a position at a production machine shop working primarily with cast gray iron and ductile iron. When I talked with the other CAM programmer, I learned that despite (and possibly because) we have hundreds of endmills in the tool crib we have no CAM tool library in Fusion360. Every part is set up with data-less tooling, and the feeds and speeds are manually added.
As I go through our tool cabinets, I'm overwhelmed by the tooling options we have collected over time, and most of it has come from tooling vendors taking us to the bank. The most frustrating part is that most setup sheets from the past few decades don't specify anything other than tool diameter and minimum length, leaving it up to the operators to make the right choice when replacing tools. I'd like to make this an easier process for the programmers, the tool crib attendant, and our machinists.
Previously I worked in a shop that ran the same standard Garr endmills for aluminum, and a coated version for steel in all their machines. Doing this kept the programmers efficient, and the machinists on task. My goal at my new job is to create a standard body of tools that are used for the majority of the cutting and utilize special tooling when specific corner radii is called out, or a deep pocket requires machining.
Our current inventory is made up of tools from AB Tools, Accupro, County Line Tool, Fullerton, Garr, Gorilla Mill, Guhring, Hanita, Harvey, Kennametal, Monster Tool, Niagara, OSG, Sandvik, Seco, SGS, Swift-Carb, and Widia. I have a personal preference for Garr, but there is no specific reason for this.
I'm wondering if you all could provide some insight on your preferred tooling standards for working with cast materials. I'm trying not to deal with salespeople until I know what I want.
TL;DR: I'm wondering if you all could provide some insight on your preferred tooling standards for working with cast materials.
I've recently taken a position at a production machine shop working primarily with cast gray iron and ductile iron. When I talked with the other CAM programmer, I learned that despite (and possibly because) we have hundreds of endmills in the tool crib we have no CAM tool library in Fusion360. Every part is set up with data-less tooling, and the feeds and speeds are manually added.
As I go through our tool cabinets, I'm overwhelmed by the tooling options we have collected over time, and most of it has come from tooling vendors taking us to the bank. The most frustrating part is that most setup sheets from the past few decades don't specify anything other than tool diameter and minimum length, leaving it up to the operators to make the right choice when replacing tools. I'd like to make this an easier process for the programmers, the tool crib attendant, and our machinists.
Previously I worked in a shop that ran the same standard Garr endmills for aluminum, and a coated version for steel in all their machines. Doing this kept the programmers efficient, and the machinists on task. My goal at my new job is to create a standard body of tools that are used for the majority of the cutting and utilize special tooling when specific corner radii is called out, or a deep pocket requires machining.
Our current inventory is made up of tools from AB Tools, Accupro, County Line Tool, Fullerton, Garr, Gorilla Mill, Guhring, Hanita, Harvey, Kennametal, Monster Tool, Niagara, OSG, Sandvik, Seco, SGS, Swift-Carb, and Widia. I have a personal preference for Garr, but there is no specific reason for this.
I'm wondering if you all could provide some insight on your preferred tooling standards for working with cast materials. I'm trying not to deal with salespeople until I know what I want.
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