Matt@Nearfield
Gone walkabout
Great advice for most things in life i feel!
-
the Daily hi thread
Parting off delrin
- Thread starter Smudgerii
- Start date
OldStock
Member Extraordinaire
Yes it might take longer, but has a better finish.
Tricky-Dicky
Member Extraordinaire
Its worth pointing out that Delrin is an actual brand name for Hp rather than Cp but is used a general term for both and there are lots of similar materials that are sold as Delrin so you have to to be carful.
Lons
Super member
I'd suspect you've been sold the wrong material but it's still down to technique as all thermoplastics and others are machineable with care.
Delrin is just a brand name and there are various other suppliers of acetal homopolymer (POM) and quility can vary but in general is dead easy to turn on a lathe. I've used it occasionally on my little Cowells watchmakers lathe but far mor often on my wood turning lathe with hand tools. Mostly for bushes used in turning pens but have made various other items as I had a quantity of scrap material and samples from a previous life.
The key is sharp tools, slow speed (500 - 1000rpm I'd suggest), light cuts and if you still have overheating issues - you shouldn't - cool it with water or better use compressed air. If you can get hold of some thin steel even a thick knife blade as a parting tool, the thinner the better as long as it's stiff you can make a good parting tool. I use a 3mm thick hand tool on the wood lathe and 2mm thick parting tool on the Cowells
From memory there used to be a machining guide on the manufacturer website and it's been around a long time so there's bound to be masses of info on the net.
EDIT:
Tricky-Dicky just beat me to it.
I've just done a very quick google and this might be worth a look if you're interested. https://www.delrin.com/resource-center/
Delrin is just a brand name and there are various other suppliers of acetal homopolymer (POM) and quility can vary but in general is dead easy to turn on a lathe. I've used it occasionally on my little Cowells watchmakers lathe but far mor often on my wood turning lathe with hand tools. Mostly for bushes used in turning pens but have made various other items as I had a quantity of scrap material and samples from a previous life.
The key is sharp tools, slow speed (500 - 1000rpm I'd suggest), light cuts and if you still have overheating issues - you shouldn't - cool it with water or better use compressed air. If you can get hold of some thin steel even a thick knife blade as a parting tool, the thinner the better as long as it's stiff you can make a good parting tool. I use a 3mm thick hand tool on the wood lathe and 2mm thick parting tool on the Cowells
From memory there used to be a machining guide on the manufacturer website and it's been around a long time so there's bound to be masses of info on the net.
EDIT:
Tricky-Dicky just beat me to it.
I've just done a very quick google and this might be worth a look if you're interested. https://www.delrin.com/resource-center/
Jimsiss
Active member
I’ve used carbide insert parting blades/grooving tools, HSS blades and never had a problem with Delrin/Acetal. Always found it easy to machine and very easy to part off. I don’t use coolant or oil on plastic at home (have coolant on the CNCs at work and it makes very little difference other than you can run at full RPMs). As stated being on or just below centreline really helps, rubbing from incorrect height or too slow speed/feed tends to create a lot of friction which is bad in plastics.
Just wait until you find use for some of the more exotic engineering plastics, we work with some that contain glass fibre and graphite and it wears tooling like mad
love working with normal PEEK though, cuts nicely and if it does burr up it leaves a tiny burr that just wipes off.
Never liked Nylon, stringy and wraps around everything, needs very sharp tooling.
Just wait until you find use for some of the more exotic engineering plastics, we work with some that contain glass fibre and graphite and it wears tooling like mad
love working with normal PEEK though, cuts nicely and if it does burr up it leaves a tiny burr that just wipes off.Never liked Nylon, stringy and wraps around everything, needs very sharp tooling.