Machining of metal involves forcing a cutting tool through excess material of the work piece. Tool geometry plays a major role in machining of metals.Aluminium alloys can be machined economically and rapidly. Because of their complex metallurgical structure,their machining characteristics are superior to those of pure aluminium.Aluminium and alloyed aluminium are important material used for housing and structural parts in automotive and aerospace industries. Machining of aluminium and its alloys require cutting tool with sharp edges either PCD or HSS tool. Only limited investigations on high speed machining of aluminium with HSS tool over the period of several years have been reported.The present work gives the findings of machining commercial aluminium alloy with high speed steel tools of various tool geometry under different cutting parameters in the medium duty lathe,which represents a great challenge for the metal working industries. The result provides some useful information.  The main focus on the paper was off-line surface finish measurements, power developed, heat generated and material removal rate(MRR) for the different types of tool geometry of high speed steel (HSS) tools.

Keywords: Machining, Aluminium alloy, High Speed Steel, Tool geometry.