Hi All,
First post. I'm a Mechanical Engineer. My Dad was a Machinist (non-CNC.. "old school" mills and lathes...) so I understand speeds and feeds and holding parts for rigidity.. all the basics. I'm faced with a situation where we CNC route 5mm Phenolic Sheet in fairly large volumes. Supplier "A" provides a reasonably machinable material where we can get several hundred parts (about 6 linear feet of cutting per part) per cutter before we need to change out. Supplier "B" provides a much "harder" material, at a substantially lower price point, but so far, we've destroyed our carbide cutters (3 flute, slight spiral, starts with plunge cut) in a few parts.
Big pressure to see if "Supplier B" material can be utilized. I'm NOT sure that we've optimized the cutter shape, nor speeds and feeds, but I know for SURE that Production will not tolerate longer cycle times.
So back to basics, our Thermwood and Routech CNC machines use vacuum to remove chips, but there is no active cooling. Coming from the metalworking background point of view, I see the absence of coolant as leaving lots of tool wear on the table.
Has anyone any experience applying chilled air as the "coolant" in machining Phenolics? It's nasty a horrible heat-holding material. Would this make any substantial difference pulling heat out of the tool or are things moving too fast to make a difference?
Thanks
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