Had a nomad for some time and am growing tired of not being able to do any real production on it because of how slow it is in 6061.I’ve watched a few videos on youtube demonstration the repeatability of the hdm but there doesnt seem to be much in terms of how rigid it is. Can it cut steel? titanium? Im shooting directly between the print nc mini (taking forever to make any headway in develoment) and the hdm
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I have been pushing my HDM pretty hard on 6061 and I can say that the 110 spindle is where I loose some, I can stall it out if I’m too aggressive (but that’s pretty high) on DOC+WOC but it’s pretty darn rigid. I have not cut steel (except for hitting the vise jaws) but I’m sure slow and steady will work.
Overall I’m impressed how the repeatability and speed I can push the HDM, but to take full advantage you will need to use Fusion 360 and learn how to do CAM that is optimized for the machine and the parts you are making. If you look at my thread you can see I’ve got approaches for slotting and roughing that took some time to dial in, but now work great on all new parts as I prototype or do production
We use HDM’s in house now for real production work across various items.
The HDM is a heavy weight when it comes to a CNC router. Generally speaking you can cut ferrous materials but these are more suited to flood coolant and low RPM (sub 10k). Composites, plastics, aluminium are all pretty standard these days. That said I’ve killed a couple of tiger claws over the last year.
Off the top of my head a HDM weights in at over 200lb and uses solid billet on almost everywhere. Check out this 60x60x700mm side rail, machined in house on one of our HAAS VF4’s,
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS7J8NLD99B/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I’m not sure it’s fair to compare this to a print nc mini.
Also it is much more powerful than a Nomad. Here it is cutting 20mm DOC with 0.5mm load in aluminium.
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what kind of speeds are you running on the hdm and how did you calculate it?
Generally for aluminium I run around 2000mm a min, but this varies based on end mill and project. There are many ways to calculate feeds and speeds, I start with the C3D recommendations then modify based on experience.
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The default limit for the HDM appears to be 5000mm/min, but what is it for the plunge rate?
The default maximum plunge rate is also 5000mm a min.
Just because an axis can move fast doesn’t mean it’s suitable to do so. As an example our production machines i.e. Brothers, Haas, Datron etc can all move at 30,000mm a min + but we sure can’t cut at those speeds.
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im looking to at least run at some of my bits feeds and speeds lol
I was just wondering what the limit was as I couldn’t find anything published and for all I knew it was a fraction of the lateral limits.
I have a drill bit app that gives me recommendations on feed and speed rates as well as plunge rates. For wood and plastic with a 1/8th drill bit it recommends 9167rpm at .02 to .1 mm per rev which works out to plunge rates of 183 to 917mm. This gives me a starting point to experiment, but I had no idea if the machine was capable of the higher end of the range.
I haven’t cut any ferrous metals yet, but Vince at Saunders has. Consider an HDM for very occasional steel and titanium. But you need to really focus on chip load, a good/heavy coolant mist, and know that you’ll go thru more endmills than a machine with a slower spindle. In aluminum, plastic, and composites my HDM makes our normal mill look slow and dumb. I’ve cut at 200 IPM in 6061 with 1x diameter for depth of cut and around 0.063" stepover.
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I’ve cut cast iron, but I really babied it. S8000 F8.0 ipm, 0.010" DOC 0.125" WOC with a 0.125" end mill.
It was a hole milling operation, so all ramp & fully engaged.
Hand applied coolant, Tap Magic. It cut really nice, with expected grainy chips & no tool damage.
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