MSC is pretty good, I've been with them since 1988. If you have a local showroom, they often have good deals on odd items, you never know what's on the table when you walk in. My account is through my business and I get all sorts of promos in my email every day. Bob
I always find which way it makes the clean cut and make my p***es the same way. I turn it off, run the table back and take the next overlapping cut. Bob
Tramming in the head will take 10 times longer than piss cutting the surface. I'll ***ume your just putting a fresh surface on it and if thats the case you'll probably be removing no more than .010-.015. For that amount the type of tool should not be an issue. Take things down to where your happy and then a .001 final p***. A 3" flycutter would take longer due the depth of cut for each p*** but it will work. Before taking the final p*** put a fresh edge on the cutter and you should be good to go.
For what you're doing, you could take it to a shop and pay their hourly-rate and be many $$$ ahead. It depends on how many times you want to use this tool again. The arbor will be less than $100, but the shell mill may run you $350 and up. I always buy one with indexable carbide inserts. I have a 4" Kennametal that works very nicely. Some of the HSS ones are way up there in price due to the amount of grinding goes into it. Bob
Check Egay for used tooling. For what your doing that should be good enough. Used flycutters aren't expensive.
I have never understood the fascination with a flycutter. It is the tool of last resort in any commercial shop. I spent more than a decade as a Tool & Die Maker at Lockheed Aircraft. The only time I ever used a flycutter was on a 50 taper machine with the head tipped to produce a large radius. And if you had to do a job like that you used the ratty machine the apprentices beat up. There is nothing good about an interrupted cut with a 5 inch torque arm on that poor little bridgeport spindle. Hammering away on the splines & bearings. Just buy yourself a decent two flute endmill with a 3/4" shank. Something about 1.5" diameter. Stone a .010 radius on the tips, and use it for surfacing. Tram the head. Sweep the table in a circle as large as you can & still keep the indicator on the table at 6 & 12 o'clock. If you can get it within .0005 over 10 inches, the error with a 1.2" stepover on a 1.5" diameter cutter is inconsequential. B.
Only reason for the flycutter is price and sounds like he wants to do it on the cheap. It's always easy when the company is paying for the tooling, in that case use an Iscar and peel away. Thinking a good stoning and new gasket would do.
I worked in one shop where we did a fair amount of flycutting on large aluminum blocks as well as stainless steel. We had one machine set up for just that purpose. At the time, it worked fine. I have a small 2" diameter R8 indexable endmill made by ETM, I bought it used and it works great, think I laid out $75 for it. eBay would be the place to look. I've sold lots of machine shop equipment there. Bob
I have a buddy that will prob do it for free but that's not the point. By buying my own machines I'm trying to get rid of my dependence on others. Just looking for help on buying the right tools for my machine. It was FNG of me to want to fly cut the surfaces. I'm going to buy a new r8 arbor since it seems that's the platform for many different cutters and buy something around a 3" shell mill/face cutter. I just bought one of those indicator mounts posted above that go on the quill to tram everything out. Once I get everything in I'll post the results. Thanks guys.
There is a 4" kennametal(KDPR-4-SP4-15MB) on the bay right now for 125. Seems like a steal. I may purchase.
I did a quick search and it seems to be a discontinued model, which means nothing since the inserts will always be available. Some of those can run $350 and up new in the box. Get a holder for it and you're good to go. Bob
Nothing wrong with using a flycutter. They're inexpensive and versatile. I've used them for boring fairly close tolerance holes and always get a nice finish. When I want to skim something off a surface in 1 p***, I'll use one. The 2 main ones I have, I made myself. One is a 1/2 shank made out of 1.25" stainless hex stock (it was laying around) and the other from 2.5" steel rod. Bob
I got that shell. $130 shipped. Now I need to figure out what inserts go in it and get an arbor. Am I right to ***ume I need a 1.5" thread r8 arbor?
Ago is correct here. I wouldn't really go past a 6" with your bridgport, that is what I used most often when I was still working. If you get out there too far and your table is a little loose you will do more damage than good. Whatever you do don't crowd it and overlap your p***es. But you already knew that right?
What size is the hole in your cutter? That will be the size of the arbor you ned to get. For inserts, there is a pretty wide selection. You should be able to get the right info off the Kennametal site, the inserts are industry standard for most shell/face mills and you may save by going imported. Bob
That's a pretty big arbor then, I'd have to see the auction page or the Kennametal catalog to 100% sure. You can always wait until the face mill shows up and measure it. Of course with the bigger arbor, the tools ***ociated with it are more expen$ive. For a Bridgeport, I would have gone with a 1" arbor, as all of mine are that size. The bigger sizes go with bigger CNC machinery that takes Morse 30 or 40 tooling. Bob
I've owned a custom tool shop for 25 years and have done a lot of large diameter fly cutting. You can make a fly cutter to fit in a 1" tool holder by welding a 1" diameter shank on a 1 1/2" square bar. Only make it as long as it needs to be. Cut a slot in the end so you can slip a square tool bit in and lock it with a couple set screws. The key is to take a shallow cut ( .003 - .005 ) at the lowest RPM you can turn it. A sharp tool will give a good finish. You can play with the RPM once you see how it cuts. WD40 keep the chip from sticking to the tool point. Remember the #1 machinist rule!!! Haste makes WASTE. JC
yeah I'm going to wait until it shows up. I can't find anything in kennametals catalog. I'm trying to find older catalogs right now without success. I'm sure one day i'll experiment around making and using a fly cutter, but for now I don't trust myself and I feel this face cutter will do everything I need.
seller said it screws on a 1.5" arbor. he also said he thinks its a spu 433 size chip. Is chip size something I can easily measure to determine?
Back in the day, carbide wasn't as widespread and affordable as it is now with the insert technology. Any carbide-tipped tools would have blanks brazed to HSS. There were solid carbide shell mills, exhorbitantly priced even then. So the flycutter was the way to go for many shops. I've seen them with 2 tool bits in them, custom ground by the in-house cutter grinder of the day. Like I've posted before, in a small shop they're very handy and easy to make from mild steel. Bob
I needed a fly cutter late one night for a industrial repair job that came in some years back. I used a 1 1/2" square for the body and put a tool bit on both ends. One was .003 lower that the first one. this way one cutter would take a light p*** and the other would follow with the finish depth. It took a little messing with the tip but it worked like a charm. If your cutter will over lap on a large diameter cut you can fix that when you are tramming the table. Make sure you tram the max diameter you can so you can so you can give the head ever so slight of a tilt, lets say .001 from end to end on a 12" diameter tram bar. this will let the leading end of the cutter make the cut and the trailing side of the cutter point will just miss the part. It will be so slight of a angle you will never know it for most jobs. Another good trick if you are making a long cut, to keep the table from sagging once it gets way out there. I have put my cheery picker on the end of the table that will be sagging and I put a eye bolt in the table and connect the eye to my cherry picker hook with spring with a 3/16" diameter wire. You lift it just enough to take the extra weight off it. You can tell when it is rite by cranking the table. You wont feel any resistance, it will move as if it was in the middle of the stoke. In my opinion the Bridgeport is one of the most versatile machines ever designed. Its limits are limited by your imagination and skill. JC
Once you get the face mill, go to the Kennametal site and contact them. They should be able to tell you what insert you need. Bob
This should give you a pretty goood idea of what you need if the insert is in the SPU 433 family. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ww...search&Ntt=SPU+433&sst=All&N=21807+4293887968
they have some cheap Chinese ones on ebay. I may buy them and make sure they fit. The guy said it was "sp433" but I can only get a search return on spu433. are turning inserts different from milling ones?
What is that Kennametal cutter and inserts going to cost? How much will you use it? Here is a inexpensive alternative. Mcmaster.com # 3041A16 for $29.20
Thanks but I already bought the kennametal cutter. $130 shipped. +inserts +r8 arbor. so prob 250 once I'm up and running. I expect to use it a bunch to face the flanges on exhaust headers, this blower, and a few other things....and that's just current projects. I don't mind buying quality. I'm young so I want what I buy now to be with me forever.
http://www.travers.com/product.asp?eaprodid=113865-67-228-096&r=s&n=||UserSearch1=block+id+113865 http://www.travers.com/product.asp?eaprodid=113865-67-806-674&r=s&n=||UserSearch1=block+id+113865 the $60 arbor looks like it has the same specs as the $150 one. so besides country of origin whats the difference? travers also has an Israeli arbor, which I know Israel makes nice guns but how are the arbors? http://www.travers.com/product.asp?eaprodid=113865-67-168-096&r=s&n=||UserSearch1=block+id+113865
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