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Old timer at the shop taught me a trick that changed how I set my feeds
I was running a Haas VF-2 at a job shop in Detroit last year when this 60 year old guy walked up and told me to slow my rapids by 10% for aluminum. He said it saves the ball screws and gives better surface finish. Have any of you adjusted your rapid speeds based on material?
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brian_rivera594mo ago
Asked my buddy who runs a shop over in Ohio about this same thing. He laughed and said he's been running his rapids at half speed for titanium jobs for years now. The old timer at his place told him the same thing but for tool life (which makes sense if you think about it). He showed me a scrap piece one time where the finish was way better at 70% rapid versus full speed. I dunno if it's real science or just old guy lore but it seems to work for him so I don't question it.
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terry_carter154mo ago
Mild steel and aluminum I don't see much difference. I ran a few test parts on our Doosan DNM last month at 100% rapids and then 70% and the surface finish was the same within a tenth or two. The ball screw wear thing might be real if you're running 24/7 production but for small batch work I doubt it matters enough to slow things down.
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ray_miller412mo ago
Up in Minnesota my cousin's shop has a 30 year old Matsuura that's never had the rapids touched and still holds tenths. He swears by just letting it rip. @brian_rivera59 that titanium thing is interesting though, maybe the vibration from the rapid messes with the cut on harder stuff.
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