01-09-2015, 08:12 AM
That depends upon the material, the depth of the hole, the cutting speed used, etc.
For an example, I used the (free) GPS software on the Walter website and entered 1018 steel, 1.5" deep. With that I get 410rpm, 6.3 seconds per hole, expect at least 487 holes.
If I change the material to 316 stainless steel and go only 1" deep, it suggests 127rpm @ 13.44 seconds per hole but only 141 holes. In my experience with the THL coating you generally get 3 to 4 times those number of holes when using a tapping compound. The whole point of using the THL coating is that for most CNC machines you can't (or do not want to) stop mid-cycle for a dab of tapping fluid so you run with machine coolant. That's where you see the software predicted life getting closer to reality.
For an example, I used the (free) GPS software on the Walter website and entered 1018 steel, 1.5" deep. With that I get 410rpm, 6.3 seconds per hole, expect at least 487 holes.
If I change the material to 316 stainless steel and go only 1" deep, it suggests 127rpm @ 13.44 seconds per hole but only 141 holes. In my experience with the THL coating you generally get 3 to 4 times those number of holes when using a tapping compound. The whole point of using the THL coating is that for most CNC machines you can't (or do not want to) stop mid-cycle for a dab of tapping fluid so you run with machine coolant. That's where you see the software predicted life getting closer to reality.