I think I just learned something.

    I am trying to bore a 5 inch diameter hole in 6 inch diameter
    aluminum bar stock about 5 inches deep.

    I was getting tool chatter.  At first I thought I needed a stiffer
    boring bar. My boring bar is about .75 inch in diameter.

    I discovered if you speed up the carriage feed the chatter goes away
    more or less.

    Some of you guys on here are expert machinist.

    Have you heard of this before ?

    Paul Lamar

    Paul, The spindle speed formula    RPM= Surface Feet per Minute x 4/
    tool Diameter SFM for aluminum is 400 & R is .002/.009 And the feed
    rate formula     Feed (rate per minute)= RPM x T (number of teeth) x
    R (chip load)

    Ray Hellstrom

    Thanks Ray,

    Interesting.

    Paul Lamar


    Paul, Are you using a carbide cutting tool? If so, a large nose
    radius can cause chatter. Also, I didn't mention that the depth of
    cut, which should be the adjusted with the speed to produce a
    continuous chip which forms due to plastic deformation of the crystal
    structure in the unmachined work surface and the shear occurs along
    the shear plane. As the cutting tool compresses the metal immediately
    ahead of the cutting tool, the deformation of the crystal structure
    elongates, the material above the cutting edge is forced along the
    chip tool interface and away from the tool.

    Ray Hellstrom


    No it is a sharp point.

    BTW do any of you guys know where I can get a six inch diameter
    steady rest?

    Paul Lamar

   Paul

   To the best of my knowledge, steady and follow rests are machine specific and not universal. I would start with the lathe manufacturer and get the model number.

   Bolton tools sells inexpensive Chinese made ones. It may be possible if your ways are reasonably close to the ones they offer- it might work for you.

   Alan Mullen
   Colorado

   My CC lathe is 40 years old. It came with a steady rest that is too small.

   I will make one out of a 10" by 10" steel plate .75 inches thick. A 8 inch diameter hole will
   be cut in the plate with flame cutter. More on this shortly.

   Here is a picture of why I need it.


   Paul LamarPaul,

What about using a DoAll vertical bandsaw? From their website, most have a 13" vertical height, the bigger ones get more horizontal distance. Find a shop with one with the blade welder at the machine, With your height, DoAll might suggest the best blade and the pilot hole could be sized accordingly.
Another thought. My old horizontal Kalamazoo bandsaw has a 19" horz. x 8" vertical space and takes a 3/4" x .032 blade. Bore a center hole plus one just inside the ID, cut pie slices  Once you get the first pie slice out, the others don't need a rim hole.

Jim Rudholm

I have a Cheap Chinese copy of a DoAll. I am rather surprised that the quality of  Chinese products has greatly improved
recently. Ironically that is part of the lack of U.S. jobs problem. China is a dictatorship and they are not playing fair when it
comes to trade. They control the monetary exchange rate. Floating currency in most countries is an automatic
means of balancing trade between countries. When the price on a given countries products goes up the demand goes down
and that changes the monetary  exchange rate and tends to balance the trade. Not so in China. They fix the rate.

We need a large tax or import tariff on Chinese goods to promote manufacturing here in the US. A small tax
initially making it larger and larger until a balance in trade is reached.

Now getting back to the machining problem. The band saw would work on both the six inch billet of aluminum
and the new 3/4 inch thick steady rest. In both cases it would take a lot of time. The six inch billet is a one time
operation and it is almost done. In the future I will use thick wall aluminum tubing for that part.
I would still need the steady rest for my small lathe.

The .75 inch thick steel plate for the steady rest would take a long time to cut an 8 inch diameter hole.

I have a friend with a computer controlled flame cutter and he can do that in just a few minutes. No need to
push the band saw slowly through thick steel. The saw needs to run at low feet per second rate to cut such thick
steel other wise the blade gets dull. Also the radius is a bit tight for a band saw blade.

Another option is water jet.  In this geographical  area that too is very expensive. On the airport we have a laser
cutter and I will investigate that option next week.

Thanks for making me think of my options :-)

Paul Lamar


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