This is because the tool is no longer under cutting pressure to stabilize it, and the vibration and runout cause the tool to make a slight gouge.

Basically, low spindle speeds are not a good reason to switch to HSS cutters. The only time that this makes sense is if you’re just starting out and you’re afraid of breaking a tool – Carbide is more expensive, but they work better and last significantly longer.

There is an area where this doesn’t work the best: if you have a router with a downwards exhaust. I mean like those big Porter-Cable types of wood routers that have lots of power. They’ll blow a ton of air all around the tool, without actually getting air to the tool. It can be pretty tricky to get a decent spray around that air blast.

They’re not hard to set up. All you need is a kit, compressed air and a bit of oil. The whole package will cost you under $100 (assuming you have an air compressor), so if you use your router reasonably often it’s a really smart upgrade.

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Don’t get too worked up about this. If your router is fixed RPM (or very limited) then just adjust based on feed rate and depth of cut. It ain’t rocket science, just make it work.

1) The machining handbook recommends a minimum RPM, so some people assume that the tool needs to be run at that RPM. That’s not what it means. It just means that you’re not achieving maximum efficiency for the tool. Not a big deal.

I've sold numerous cutters that came with a small horizontal mill. The smaller diameter ones sell easiest, but the large ones you can't give away. Like you, I've still got a box of them just in case they are needed one day.

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Aluminum needs a lot more rigidity that wood or plastic. If you push it too fast, you might actually be able to see your machine flex under the load, if not rattle loose.

Another factor is your RPM – larger tools need a lower RPM, so if you can get down to 15,000 RPM then the 1/4″ endmill will generally work well. If you can’t go less than 25,000 or 30,000 RPM then you might not want to use anything more than a 1/8″ or 3/16″ cutter.

If you really have no choice and you have to plunge straight into the material, cut your feed rate waaaay down. Like if you’re running the profile cuts at 20 inches per minute, turn the plunge feed rate down to 4. Even then, pay close attention to see how it goes.

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Cutting wax can be smeared all over the top surface of where you want to cut, and it’s great because it sticks on – even a downward exhaust won’t take it off.

CNC mills and lathes are generally very predictable in how rigid they are. That’s why we can calculate optimal speeds and feeds without too much testing.

Not impossible, though. You can use those little red extension tubes that come with the can to help get the oil right to the tool. It’s just a little annoying because the air will blow away any oil that’s more than an inch or two away from the tool so you have to monitor it closely. I have a water-cooled spindle so it’s no problem for me, but it depends on your setup.

Filament Dryers Cleanup and deburring wheels Lathe vibration in workshop Buying a quick change tool post – Which one? More on Magnets 3 1/2 juliet My week this week! My workshop videos alchin 1.5 scale traction engine HELP Diesel The Incredible Shrinking Hose

I've been working in manufacturing and repair for the past 14 years. My specialty is machining. I've managed a machine shop with multiaxis CNC machines for aerospace and medical prototyping and contract manufacturing. I also have done a lot of welding/fabrication, along with special processes. Now I run a consulting company to help others solve manufacturing problems.

Typically I’ll use a 1/4″ endmill since my machine can handle it well; I’ve done a few mods to make it a bit more rigid. If your machine is really little, you might want to use a 1/8″ endmill for cutting profiles.

This is why I really like using carbide 2 or 3-flute endmills whenever possible; they have enough chip clearance to reduce the chance of the aluminum welding itself to the cutter through friction, but they’re much stronger than the 1 flute endmills. Your cuts will look cleaner, and the tool won’t break as easily.

Probably the simplest is just hanging out while it’s cutting and giving it intermittent sprays of WD-40. It you’re like me, you’ve probably already got 6 or 7 half-full cans of the stuff on your shelves and in your toolboxes. No reason to overcomplicate this.

For helical interpolation, you’re just making a spiral instead of a zigzag. This works well for holes, or when you’re making a pocket.

Avoid plunging down into the metal whenever possible. Some tools are better designed for this that others, but it’s generally best avoided entirely. Unless you’re dealing with very thin sheet metal, that is. Then it’s not a big deal.

I recently started to downsize my workshop pending the sale of my property and then it all fell through,my advice is that if you get rid of something you will need it next week,so keep your cutters,just oil them and stop rust. A lot of cutters can be used in a vertical mill. Another use fo convex and concave cutters is mount them on a length of bar so that they can be used in the toolpost of your lathe,they make very accurate radius form cutters,when one tooth gets blunt rotate the cutter one tooth and get another sharp cutter.I certainly would not dispose of slitting saws and gear cutters.

Small tools work much better – but even still you need to know what kind of tool to use for aluminum. They’re different from plastic-cutting tools.

2) Some cutters do need a minimum RPM to properly use their features. For example, you need to run some coated endmills at a minimum RPM to “activate” their coatings. You will not likely be entering this arena of high performance machining with a router.

In general, you’d want to keep your chips small – something like 0.001″ per tooth for a 1/4″ endmill, and less than half that for a 1/8″ endmill.

The cutting parameters and quality of cut will depend a lot on how rigid your machine is. Small hobby routers and the big $100k machines are very different.

As a final thought, you could always get the Mig out and make something 'arty' with them. You'd be amazed what people will pay.

Now it’s pretty unlikely that you have a 96,000 RPM machine, but this should give you an idea of how cutter diameter affects RPM. If your minimum speed is 30k RPM, then you might want to shy away from 1/4″ endmills for aluminum in favor of something 3/16″ or 1/8″.

I've recently sold a horizontal mill and will soon have a new vertical mill to play with. I now have a large number of horizontal cutters (side and fence, angle, double angle, slab, concave, convex, involute, slitting, etcetera) to dispose of but, before advertising them, I wondered whether the smaller ones could be used on an arbor in the vertical mill, or whether anyone had found other uses for them. It's clear that the slitting saws can be used, but what about the rest?

Gear cutters are OK, but that was a Centec in vertical mode. So I suppose anything up to 3/16 wide depending on your new mill.

Didn't experience any problems, but it's fair to say that I probably didn't take such a deep cut that one would on a horizontal mill.

Over time, there will be dozens of tips and tricks that you’ll pick up. This should be enough information to get you started with some pretty cool projects.

Sadly I think Ajax is right. Spare the effort and just weigh the larger ones in at your local metal dealer. Some 10 years ago Lancashire had no end of industrial Ironmonger shops. As they closed, clearance stock was put in the shop windows at silly prices. Brand new 5 inch diameter 1+1/8 bore cutters any width any form for one pound each. Leaving one shop with a slab cutter 4 inches wide and 4 inches diameter a chap entering asked me how much I'd paid. To the response of £4 he said it used to be priced at £395! Turned out he was the shop owner.

If possible, get to your Z cut level off the workpiece, and then start cutting. That’s not always possible, though. Sometimes you need to get the tool in from the middle of a thick sheet.

Thanks for the quick responses. I think I'll advertise the larger ones and keep the others for a while to see whether they get called-upon.

I've been involved in metalworking in its various forms for the past 14 years. On this website, I share some of the really cool things that I've learned while working in all kinds of different shops.

This may or may not work. It’ll totally depend on how good your machine is. If your machine is home-made and reminiscent of a wet noodle, you might want to cut those feed rates down by half. If it’s a $100k machine, you could probably double it if you want to push it.

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When disengaging from the workpiece (like when the profile is cut and now it’s time to get the tool out of there) a straight retract usually works fine. The only problem that’s common is to have a notch on the part profile where the tool retracted.

Here’s a link to the 1/4″ endmill for aluminum. If you have a decently rigid home build, it should work fine. If you have a small machine, then you should start off by trying a 3/16″ or 1/8″ cutter. Those all have a 1/4″ shank so you don’t need to change your collet when swapping them.

When I built my first router in my dad’s garage, I was really excited to make all kinds of things with plastic and aluminum. I went to school for machining, and I worked in shops with some pretty high-end CNCs.

If it’s heavy aluminum, try not to just jam the tool straight down. What works way better is a ramping motion to get down to the required Z depth for the cut.

It’s really not a bad idea, though. If you want to do the upgrade and have the resources to pull it off, I’d definitely recommend installing one. I use mine all the time for plastics and metals.

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Home › Forums › Workshop Techniques › Other uses for horizontal milling cutters? This topic has 12 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 21 October 2020 at 11:53 by Anonymous. Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total) Author Posts 20 October 2020 at 14:27 #16204 Dave Sawdon 1Participant @davesawdon1 Advert 20 October 2020 at 14:28 #502280 Dave Sawdon 1Participant @davesawdon1 I've recently sold a horizontal mill and will soon have a new vertical mill to play with. I now have a large number of horizontal cutters (side and fence, angle, double angle, slab, concave, convex, involute, slitting, etcetera) to dispose of but, before advertising them, I wondered whether the smaller ones could be used on an arbor in the vertical mill, or whether anyone had found other uses for them. It's clear that the slitting saws can be used, but what about the rest? 20 October 2020 at 14:53 #502288 Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513 Gear cutters are OK, but that was a Centec in vertical mode. So I suppose anything up to 3/16 wide depending on your new mill. 20 October 2020 at 15:41 #502295 Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5 Never thought about it before, but I suppose you could convert a vertical mill into a pseudo horizontal mill by making an arbor support for the vertical column and making a spindle to go from the quill to the arbor support (in the Z axis). The milling vice / fixtures would present the workpiece such that milling would be done along the Z axis face. Not ideal, but could be managed especially if the vice was mounted on its own universal slide. 20 October 2020 at 17:03 #502306 Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1 I recently started to downsize my workshop pending the sale of my property and then it all fell through,my advice is that if you get rid of something you will need it next week,so keep your cutters,just oil them and stop rust. A lot of cutters can be used in a vertical mill. Another use fo convex and concave cutters is mount them on a length of bar so that they can be used in the toolpost of your lathe,they make very accurate radius form cutters,when one tooth gets blunt rotate the cutter one tooth and get another sharp cutter.I certainly would not dispose of slitting saws and gear cutters. 20 October 2020 at 17:46 #502315 SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr Make a large MDF board & start Ninja star throwing competitions. Sorry in advance. Steve. 20 October 2020 at 17:59 #502317 BazyleParticipant @bazyle Can still use them in the lathe on an arbor. If you want to sell them rather than just clutter ebay don't copy the prices you see there. Cutters seem to be 3 times the sensible price at the moment as house clearers and widdow robbers are listing stuff they know nothing about. 20 October 2020 at 19:25 #502331 Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254 Hi Dave, well I used a slot cutter which is 1/2" wide on my Major mill to true up two edges of this piece of T section. I then used a single 60 degree angle cutter to put a bevel on each side of the bottom of the T section. Didn't experience any problems, but it's fair to say that I probably didn't take such a deep cut that one would on a horizontal mill. Regards Nick. Edited By Nicholas Farr on 20/10/2020 19:29:00 20 October 2020 at 21:42 #502357 VicParticipant @vic Yes I’ve used them a few times. 20 October 2020 at 22:45 #502373 AJAXParticipant @ajax I've sold numerous cutters that came with a small horizontal mill. The smaller diameter ones sell easiest, but the large ones you can't give away. Like you, I've still got a box of them just in case they are needed one day. 21 October 2020 at 09:44 #502421 Dave Sawdon 1Participant @davesawdon1 Thanks for the quick responses. I think I'll advertise the larger ones and keep the others for a while to see whether they get called-upon. 21 October 2020 at 11:21 #502445 Len Morris 2Participant @lenmorris2 Hi Dave, Sadly I think Ajax is right. Spare the effort and just weigh the larger ones in at your local metal dealer. Some 10 years ago Lancashire had no end of industrial Ironmonger shops. As they closed, clearance stock was put in the shop windows at silly prices. Brand new 5 inch diameter 1+1/8 bore cutters any width any form for one pound each. Leaving one shop with a slab cutter 4 inches wide and 4 inches diameter a chap entering asked me how much I'd paid. To the response of £4 he said it used to be priced at £395! Turned out he was the shop owner. As a final thought, you could always get the Mig out and make something 'arty' with them. You'd be amazed what people will pay.

You’re going to want to use some kind of lubrication for aluminum. You can get by without anything for a short amount of time, but it’ll be riskier the longer you go without. If you’re planning on letting your router buzz away for 4 hours unattended, don’t expect your cutter to still be in one piece when you get back if it’s run dry.

For the heavy duty CNC milling machines at work, my go-to was a 1″ diameter solid carbide roughing endmill for tough alloy steels.

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For a 1/4″ tool on a rinky dink machine, try starting of at a depth of 0.010″ and go up in 0.010″ increments. For the same tool on a solid machine, try starting at 0.050″ and going up in increments of 0.025″. Listen for when the machine seems to be under load, or when the cut starts to look ugly.

For a ramp on shape motion (some CAM software might call it something different) you’ll trace the profile that you’re wanting to cut while the tool slowly descends. It’s typically something like a zigzag motion. For most CAM software, it’s just a matter of checking a box and punching in your ramp angle. I usually go with something around two degrees.

This works amazing for work that will be done at a single or shallow Z depth, like when you’re working with sheet metal or engraving. If you’re doing deeper work with lots of Z levels, wax will do a better job of lubricating just the first pass.

Not so with routers. They’re way more finicky, and since each machine is a bit different, it’s almost impossible to know beforehand what the “sweet spot” is unless you know your machine well. A homemade hobby router will be very different from a large router that’s professionally built for aerospace composites.

Forge welding is essentially the oldest way of joining two pieces of metal together. Some say that it's been around for almost 4,000 years, starting from when people were learning to smelt iron from...

Honestly, you’re just going to need to play with it. That chart should give you an idea of what to look for to adjust the feeds and speeds to something that suits your machine.

If you want to sell them rather than just clutter ebay don't copy the prices you see there. Cutters seem to be 3 times the sensible price at the moment as house clearers and widdow robbers are listing stuff they know nothing about.

HSS is cheap but not really all that great. That’s why you usually see a lot of HSS in high schools – when the students mess something up, it doesn’t cost the school as much (they’ll break the tools before they get a chance to wear), and nobody really cares how fast their cycle time is.

To counteract this, use an “arc-off” motion. Basically, instead of just having the tool stop on the part profile, add an extra little arc movement in the XY that will get the tool away from the finished geometry when it’s no longer under cutting pressure and free to leave a mark.

To get it to lubricate further down, you need to reapply it in that recently-cut channel. Not the end of the world, but I always like to let machines run without me babysitting them.

I really like using rebar for making all kinds of industrial-looking welding projects. It's also useful for things like reinforcing concrete, surprisingly. There are also a lot of different tools...

The textbook cutting speed for aluminum using a carbide tool is about 1,500 surface feet per minute at the high end, and 1,000 at the lower end. That’s not to say that you can’t spin it slower – you definitely can. But usually you don’t want to go faster than that.

Never thought about it before, but I suppose you could convert a vertical mill into a pseudo horizontal mill by making an arbor support for the vertical column and making a spindle to go from the quill to the arbor support (in the Z axis). The milling vice / fixtures would present the workpiece such that milling would be done along the Z axis face. Not ideal, but could be managed especially if the vice was mounted on its own universal slide.