I just finally found a horizontal arbor for my big Parkson 2N mill. Actually 3, a 1", 1 1/4" and 1 1/2". The 1" is the only one that really fits the supports and has a full set of spacers. I've been using the machine with the vertical head for a few years now.
So after a dig through my collection of tooling I found a gear cutter and a slitting cutter that will fit on the arbors and that is about it. So its time to start looking for some cutters.
I'd like to have some cutters for surfacing and slotting(keyways) in mild steel and cast iron. Maybe key ways in 1144 and 4140. Beyond the width, bore, key size, I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Straight vs helical? High or low tooth count? Rake? Diameter?
Which ones should I buy? which ones should I walk away from?
I'm not a real machinist, but I own a science shop and we make things that ship worldwide -- we mostly do our own protoyping. (We contract to real machinists for production.) I have an old Bridgeport CNC that maxes out at 3,000 rpm. We have big problems with chip welding when using small 1/4" cutters. We've experimented and just can't consistently make it work. The internet tells me make big, heat-taking-away chips, always use coolant, always use cutters made for aluminum (two flutes max), do not try to take small cuts, it doesn't work. Any other tips, y'all? BTW here is the cool stuff we make: emriver.com
Hi, I'm doing a college project, but my teachers aren't very accessible, I need advice from actual machinists.
We need to make a semicircular cut and my question is will it have a good machined finish if we use a regular end mill?
Photo of what we need: https://imgur.com/a/lWkFbAE
PS: My first language isn't English, so I might get the specific terms wrong but will try to clarify if needed.
Edit: Thank you so much for all your advice, it helped a lot in visualizing how this works! I'm always worried I might be making some rookie mistake, because I have absolutely no experience on this.
Looks like I've finally found some milling cutters that give me a good results.
The standard V-shaped engraving bits didn't work as expected for me.
They were quite cheap especially when ordered from China, but they caused me a headache.
They weren't that bad, but the effect wasn't repeatable. And sometimes I needed to mill the PCB twice with the same program. But my machine is quite precise in my opinion from what I found.
And I have to mention, that I need small PCB's for my 1:87 RC models.
I had to use engraving depth min 0.12mm (sometimes 0.15 for thicker cooper), so the grooves were bit to deep.
And I decided to experiment with different bits and minor fixes.
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I end up with few new milling cutters with sizes from 0.8 to 0.2mm.
They are flat headed carbon sinter. They cost ~15eur each, so it's middle price range if you know the subject.
And there was a problem, they were 50mm long, so a little to long for my current build of The Ant.
But with diamond coated cutting rings it was quite easy to cut them quickly. -
Replaced one of my Mochu bearing (bottom one).
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I squeezed both bearings little more (than normally I do) with the chuck from the bottom and shaft pulley from the top and I secured it with the shaft pulley screw. I did it because I found some small play on bottom bearing, almost nothing but still.
So now I'm very happy with the results.
Depth was set to 0.08mm (I should test smaller depth maybe, 0.7, 0.6?).
I tested milling for QFN20 footprint (4mm x 4mm) with 0.3mm first, but it was a failure.
Then switched to 0.2mm tip and it looks very good in my eyes.
With bigger elements' packages there is no problem with 0.3mm tip (still bigger depth there, 0.12mm). Contours with pocket clearing. It's small PCB so it is done quite quickly.
