Tried trochoidal milling on my old Haas, chips went everywhere

Last week I ran a 1/2" end mill with trochoidal paths on some 6061 aluminum, figured it'd be smooth like the videos. My Z axis started vibrating at 0.8in doc and the chips flew into the coolant tank, clogged the pump twice. Turns out my spindle bearings have too much backlash for that aggressive chip thinning, so I'm sticking to conventional roughing until I rebuild it. Anyone else run into toolpath limits on older machines that newer guys don't get?

1 comments

1 Comment

jade_singh2d ago

Honestly, that reminds me of my buddy who ran a similar path on an old Fadal and the coolant hose blew right off the spindle. He spent an hour chasing chips out of the way lube lines, then the machine just alarm'd out mid-pass. He ended up buying a used rigid tapping head just to keep the spindle from walking around, which barely helped. Told me he now treats any chip thinning like a rumor until the machine proves it can handle it.