# Stainless Steel Question

**URL:** <https://community.inventables.com/t/stainless-steel-question/37851>\
**Category:** X-Carve\
**Created:** [May 16, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/stainless-steel-question/37851 "2017-05-16T14:33:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BrianRose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BrianRose](https://community.inventables.com/u/BrianRose)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/stainless-steel-question/37851/1 "2017-05-16T14:33:28Z")

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Hey all,

I have read about cutting stainless steel in some of the forum posts. I want to carve a part that has a thickness of somewhere in the neighborhood of .024 inches (24 gauge). I was wondering if these settings are doable or am I way off on the feed rates, step-down, etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

About my X-carve v1  
1000mm  
Dewalt 611  
Steel brackets along the Y-axis for reinforcement  
Bolts inserted along the X-axis for reinforcement

Here is my Fusion setup sheet:

 ![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/uploads/inventables/original/3X/5/a/5a1c5958c215a9634aacc8b5373cad61ccc4682b.png)

I am mostly interest in the cutout, but if you see anything in the drilling, that would be helpful as well.

Thanks,  
Brian

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrianRose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BrianRose](https://community.inventables.com/u/BrianRose)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/stainless-steel-question/37851/3 "2017-05-16T14:48:41Z")

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Yeah. I suspected this would be the case. I had a Hypertherm plasma cutter for a while but used it so infrequently, I sold it. I hoped someday to make a CNC for it, but, like a lot of other things in my playbook, that never happened 🙂

Brian

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**Author:** ![EdDixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@EdDixon](https://community.inventables.com/u/EdDixon)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 7:21pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/stainless-steel-question/37851/4 "2017-05-16T19:21:02Z")

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Stainless steel comes on many grades and you did not say what type of stainless you are working with. With that said you have a problem anyway. I am going to assume you know nothing about SFM or CLpT (surface feet per minute and Chip load per tooth.) without calculating anything I can tell you that there is no way to cut stainless at 30ipm and the lowest speed on the DeWalt is way too fast.

Once you identify the type of material you can look up the SFM for that material in the machinists handbook and from there you can calculate the proper rpm. From there you can calculate the chip load per tooth to calculate the feed rate. Other considerations are the rigidity and horse power of the machine itself. Then there is the matter of coolant. in short, it will be hard to do at best.