end mills and face mills with carbide

[Loose nut]

I have been looking through the catalogs at different types of end and face mills with carbide inserts, does anyone have any experience with these on mill/drills.

Can a smaller mill handle the carbide speeds and feeds or will the inserts break down to fast at the lower loading that we would use on smaller machines (ZX 45 geared head mill/drill).
Does it make that much difference on the type of insert that they use IE: triangular, square, round etc. and they have a lot of different mounting angles on the inserts, I don't know how much difference this makes and the catalogs make it clear as mud.

What type of load will running at proper carbide feeds and speed have on the mill itself, can it damage the machine.

The ones I have been looking at are 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" in dia. with 2 or 3 inserts and a R8 shank. Some end mills have only one insert, it seems that the cutting forces would push this of to one side a bit if the spindle wasn't large.

The face mills that come with these mills are basically useless and I need a replacement, any thought's on this would be welcome.

P.S. just thought of something else, how much horsepower is required to use one of the 2 or 3 insert mills, is 1 or 1 1/2 HP enough.

 

[rake60]

My Cummins 7877 mini mill (Sieg X2) handles a 1" quite will within it's limits.

On steel .050" is a rough cut. On aluminium or brass it cuts fine at .120" depth of cut.
It's a comman sense thing. If the machine is hammering or chattering excessively
you lighten up.

I bought this 1" face mill from CME Tools for less than $20

It's doing a very good job for me in the mini mill.

Rick

 

[IanN]

Hi,

Not really an answer to the main topic, but a response to your final question:

I was taught that as a rule of thumb, you can remove 1.5 cubic inches of mild steel per minute per horsepower.

Do the maths for any given surface speed, depth of cut and number of cutting edges in contact at with the work at the same time.

Ian.