Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Higher performance systems

Leslie M. Watts wrote:

>A note also for Josh... Doing 3-d contouring can be very machine time
>intensive so yes routers and such typically can have quite high
>feed rates and correspondingly high accelerations so corners can be
>sharp at speed. In the big machines cutting at several FEET per second
>is common.
>
>But to use those speeds you have to have a LOT of spindle horsepower at
>high rpms. Many of those fast machines have 25 HP+. If you are using
>a small router motor you may not need such high travel speeds simply because
>you can't push that router through the work that fast. An exception might be
>cutting foam or something that requires little power.
>
>
>

I read a book on high speed machining. They were pushing a 1/2" end mill,
at 80,000 RPM, through aluminum, removing 640 cu in/minute of metal!
I don't remember the feedrate, but I can calculate it must have been in
the area
of 100 IPM. This required 75 hp at the spindle, and was what limited them
from going faster.

Not for the home shop!

Jon