5
Always thought HSM toolpaths were just marketing hype until I ran a job in Phoenix that proved me dead wrong
For years I ran all my jobs with conventional trochoidal milling and figured high speed machining was just a way for tooling companies to sell more expensive endmills. Then last month I got a rush order for a hardened D2 steel mold cavity, 62 HRc, and my usual methods were taking forever with terrible tool life. A guy I share a shop with dared me to try his HSM routine with a variable helix endmill and I finally caved. The difference was insane, cut time dropped from 8 hours to just under 3 and I got 3 cavities out of one tool before I had to change it. I felt like an idiot for ignoring it for 3 years. Has anyone else switched paths and seen numbers like that?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
daniel_rivera17d ago
@foster.dylan brings up a good point, but I gotta say 62 Rc is on the high end for most HSM routines to shine that dramatically. The variable helix endmill is doing a lot of the heavy lifting there, not just the path. My guess is the tool you were using before had a standard geometry that couldn't handle the heat, and the HSM path plus the new tool just changed the whole game. Glad it worked out, that's a massive jump.
4