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Used to think you had to run every CNC at full speed to be profitable, then one bad week in March changed my mind completely.
Spent all week scrapping aluminum parts because I was pushing feeds too hard trying to hit numbers, and after 12 scrapped pieces on Wednesday my shop foreman showed me how running at 80% speed actually gave me zero rejects and better surface finish, has anyone else found a happy medium with their cycle times like that?
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jones.brooke14d ago
That 12 scrapped pieces in one Wednesday is brutal. I remember when my nephew was learning manual machining back in the 90s he had a week like that and it cost his boss almost a full shift of work. I cannot imagine what that does to a shop when you are running CNC and the material is aluminum, that stuff is not cheap either. And the thing is your foreman was right, pushing to 100% speed rarely pays off when you factor in the waste. I have seen guys run parts at 90% and still have issues with chatter, but 80% seems to be that sweet spot for a lot of jobs. It is like racing a car, going flat out all the time just burns up the engine and tires faster than if you back it off a little.
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river_hall4414d ago
You really think running at 100% is always the problem? If your speeds and feeds are dialed in right and the machine is rigid enough, there is no reason you cant run at full tilt without scrapping parts.
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