Solide arborite, 3/8" thick

[DanFecteau]

I post a message on the thermwood forum but nobody answer to this, I have to machine app. 20000 ft of solide 3/8" arborite and can't find the best way to do it. Right now I tried a courmatt # cu-375-4sh wich is a 3/8" x 1-1/8" x 3/8" x 3" up cut slow helix. Quality of the cut is good but after one 4' x 8' sheet the tool is dull and burned. My feed was app. 200 ipm and rmp between 14 000 and 15 000. I used an onion skin because all the parts are 2 1/4" wide. I really need advice for this because it's a huge project for us and it will begin soon. I have to deliver prototypes right now so I'm doing some testing....Thank you very much for your help.

[Jason Susnjara]

Hi Dan,

I will have someone reply to your post early next week. We used to machine this for our table tops so we should have some specs for you to try.

thanks,

[DanFecteau]

That's great news ! The thing is that in one 4' x 8' sheet I have approximatly 50 pieces of 2 1/4" x 30" (average). So I understand that it's not the same thing than machining 2 table top a sheet, so I do not expect the tool to last 40 sheets but I would like to optimize.

Thanks for your help.

[Jason Susnjara]

Hi Dan,

If Arborite is the same as Arboron then Lynn at Vortex gave us this suggestion.

"In that case we have re-designed our series 6100 & 6200 to more of an o’flute geometry  and without chipbreakers which works very well in the phenolics.  The 5800 series also works well.  We ran the 5853 in some ¾” phenolic here at our facility at 16,000 @ 320 ipm.  We ran this in two passes.  Left a beautiful finish."

Let me know if this works.

[DanFecteau]

Thank you very much. I think I will try the 6140, I think the chip breaker will be helpful and if the finish is not that good I will sand it a little bit. I will still use onion skin and might finish it with a downcut (regular) just to be sure parts hold down. Right now I was using courmatt CU-375-4SH wich I think is a similar tool but without the chipbreaker. Finish was good but the tool last only one sheet (many parts in the sheet !!)