I compared climb milling vs conventional on my Haas last week and it was night and day

I've been running my 2017 VF-2 for about 2 years now and always just used conventional milling because that's what the guy before me did. Last Tuesday I had a job with some 6061 aluminum parts, .500 deep slots with a 3/8 end mill. Decided to try climb milling on one side and conventional on the other. The climb milled side came out super smooth, no chatter, and the tool lasted through all 50 parts. The conventional side had that rough finish and I could hear the machine struggling by part 30. I switched the whole job over to climb and cut my cycle time by about 12 minutes total. Has anyone else had a similar experience switching between the two on aluminum?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_lewis8513d ago

I've made that mistake too... felt pretty dumb after seeing the difference haha.

oliverbailey13d ago

Hold on, wait. A 12 minute cycle time cut? Just from switching direction? And on a VF-2 no less? Ngl, that's wild. I've swapped between them on small jobs but never measured the time difference that carefully. I guess the reduced tool deflection on the climb side let you take a heavier cut or push the feed up without the machine complaining. Honestly, that makes me wonder how much time I've left on the table over the years not testing both on every single job.