I am pretty new to machining and have been tasked with using this machine for creating one-offs and prototypes:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/20280771500....c100010.m2109
The problem I am having is that every time I try to use a keyseat cutter to do an undercut or cut a simple O-ring groove, the stepper motors start to skip steps or something and then the machine starts drifting further and further away from where it is supposed to be cutting.
For example:
I tried cutting a (2.63mm deep x 4.775mm high) circular oring groove in 6061-T6 aluminum using this cutter: Solid Carbide Key Cutter W/ Corner Radius - Series 101
with a 0.2mm stepover and 2.4mm stepdown, and by the end of the first stepdown the shaft of the cutter was rubbing against the part, which meant the machine had drifted by about 0.5mm, rendering the oring groove useless.
I had definitely aligned the WCS correctly this time since I knew I would have trouble cutting this O-ring groove and I wanted to eliminate the possibility of the WCS being misaligned.
For speeds and feeds I used 257 smm (843 sfm), and a feedrate of 100 mm/min (3.937 in/min).
The manufacturer recommends 300 sfm, which equates to 2400 RPM for this cutter. I am not certain my machine can handle such a slow rpm without having even more trouble.
How do I go about cutting these O-ring grooves without having such issues?
I work at a subsea R&D company, so I definitely need to be able to cut functional O-ring grooves.
