Was dead wrong about those ceramic end mills

I spent 2 years telling anyone who would listen that ceramic tooling was a gimmick for hobby shops, not real production work. Then my shop got a rush job on Inconel 718 and I had to try a 1/2 inch ceramic end mill just to keep the lights on. Has anyone else had that moment where your stubborn opinion got wrecked by cold hard results?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_hart3116d ago

Did you try running them at like 10x the normal RPM to get that red-hot glow?

dylan_patel16d ago

That guy at the cutting tool seminar I went to said the same thing, you basically have to spin them up until they're glowing and let the heat soften the material ahead of the cut.