Machining Hastalloy

[EMILYLUCY]

I am trying to mill a face on a Hastalloy casting. I am using a 100mm Dia face mill with Taegutec inserts type SEKT 12T3 AFTN-M GRADE TT8020. The problem i am having is the inserts are breaking after a short cutting time. Does anybody have experiance in this type of work.

 

[TVP]

I don't have any personal experience, but you can obtain information about machining Hastelloy from Haynes International, the producer of this alloy:

http://www.haynesintl.com/pdf/h2010.pdf

 

[jbel]

Why not contact your cutting tool supplier or manufacturer? They should be able to dial you in with the correct inserts and speeds and feeds to go along with them.

 

[funnelguy]

EMILYLUCY,
My direct experience is limited to C-276 wrought material. I have worked in shops that machined Hastalloy X as well. The fact that you are working on castings will probably serve to complicate the issue. I assume this is your first run in with Hastalloy?

The tooling that will give best results depends on many things. Ridgidity of the machine, part and fixturing. Available horsepower, condition of the casting.

I definitely agree with discussing this with Haynes, as suggested by TVP. jbel's advice was sound as well. Definitely bring in a couple of tooling suppliers and run some tests with loaner tools. Hastalloy is a bear. Expect a lot of operator intervention and a lot of consumable usage. DOC notches will quickly break inserts. Vary your DOC and use a large lead angle with the largest radius your set-up will allow. Your tooling supplier is going to love you. Drilling and tapping is a whole other subject. Watch for work hardening. You can destroy a tap trying to get through a work hardened chamfer. Best of luck, I have alot of respect for people who work in this stuff on a regular basis.

 

[twinny]

I take it the problem is the skin on the casting?

slow the revs

make sure machine has enough power at low revs could be you want to use a smaller cutter so the revs are higher at that cutting speed more torque may be then available.

 

[schlebb]

I have good success machining Hastalloy castings using "Whisker" ceramic inserts. Depth of cut was very small, but speeds were high, and the surface finish was very good.

There are, or course, different classes of Hastalloy and you will have to talk to your tooling supplier to see if this could work for you.

Regards,


Schlebb

 

[xanvil]

We turned Hastoloy C round to a depth of .375" to the side with ceramic inserts at 2000 RPM on a 4" dia. Found it much to dangerous to run. The shavings were red hot, very stringy, we always lost the insert at the end of the cut. The insert could
be touched immediately with no excess heat in it.

 

[hammer66]

Hastelloy is nasty in whatever form you try to machine it.
Slow feeds and speeds, as well as small depth of cut or chiploading are the rule of thumb. No matter what type of inserts or tools you use to cut it, it trashes them. We do alot of c2000 at our shop using carbide tools and inserts.
Working with Hastelloy is time consuming tedious work and we have found no way around it. Small peck rates for drilling and reaming holes (especially deep ones) and as soon as a tool starts chattering, CHANGE IT QUICK!!! When estimating cost on a Hastelloy job, make sure you allow a large tooling expense. Hope this helps.

Hammer66

 

[Nate101]

Hastelloy is challenging. Just going by what you said some possible issues are wrong grade of insert, wrong edge on insert, not enough rigidity, excessive surface footage or feed rate, machine horse power. As jbel said contact your tool supplier, most of the time they will give you inserts to try and information for your cutting conditions. If you want some conservative numbers try 48-60SFM, .0008-.001IPT, DOC 1-3X the insert corner radius.
Good luck.