by Leo » Sat Jul 26, 2014 1:10 pm
When I talked to the people at CR Onsrud, they were not talking about plunging as in cutting a pocket on wood and plunging to the next depth. No that was not the discussion.
We were running the machine 8 hour shifts - 2 shifts - 5 days a week and sometimes 2 shifts on Saturday of 5 hours each. That's almost 50 hours a week. We were cutting aluminum 100% of the time and running 25,000 and 160 IPM. Not exactly hobby usage or 1-2 man 8 hour day, sign shop usage. We were blowing through those 25 hp spindles in 6 months time.
On my router at home - I will drill, and I will plunge when pocketing. I don't like drilling because the spindle RPM are too high for me.
Ramping is easier on the machine and I do ramp about 25% of the time - only because I simply don't think about setting the ramping the rest of the time. my bad
Ramp if you can --- but don't feel like you are destroying the machine if you don't ramp. Just don't think of the machine as though it's the same as a Metal Cutting Vertical Machining Center - which is designed for all things.
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