I have been having problems getting a decent finish using a face mill making .05mm finishing cuts.
I was advise to remove the carbide cutters that came with the mill and use HSS instead. This I did however the result was only
marginally better. I was advised to look for a Moiré pattern developing on the surface which is a indication that the Milling machine is trammed correctly.
No Moiré pattern was noticed on a consequence cut so checked the mill for tramming, the mill was off a bit so set it up again and re-cut that test piece that I have been using. No pattern seen when cutting with the material moving from left to right however a very light amount of the Moiré was seen when the material moved from right to left. One further point is that I have now changed to Aluminum versus steel to see if the results where better. I raised three of the cutters up a bit and cut a finish cut with the face mill using only one HSS cutter making contact. The finish was very much better than with four cutters.
I also noticed that the mill seemed to be under more stress when I reached the right side of my 4" machinist vice.
Based on the Moiré pattern being apparent on a right to left cut versus a left to right cut I decided that I might try setting the X-axes
tram off of center to exaggerate the cutting effect on the right side of the mill. I did this two times and each time I increased the amount of offset but basically the same result.
I also checked my vice for for it being level and found that it was .18mm higher on the rights side, this might be the cause of the heavier cutting action on the right side. As a note I removed the vice and checked the bed over the center 8" of the bed and the difference was .005mm. This now appears to be a vice problem being here as well.
My question is what next should I do to improving the finish with a face mill?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
I was advise to remove the carbide cutters that came with the mill and use HSS instead. This I did however the result was only
marginally better. I was advised to look for a Moiré pattern developing on the surface which is a indication that the Milling machine is trammed correctly.
No Moiré pattern was noticed on a consequence cut so checked the mill for tramming, the mill was off a bit so set it up again and re-cut that test piece that I have been using. No pattern seen when cutting with the material moving from left to right however a very light amount of the Moiré was seen when the material moved from right to left. One further point is that I have now changed to Aluminum versus steel to see if the results where better. I raised three of the cutters up a bit and cut a finish cut with the face mill using only one HSS cutter making contact. The finish was very much better than with four cutters.
I also noticed that the mill seemed to be under more stress when I reached the right side of my 4" machinist vice.
Based on the Moiré pattern being apparent on a right to left cut versus a left to right cut I decided that I might try setting the X-axes
tram off of center to exaggerate the cutting effect on the right side of the mill. I did this two times and each time I increased the amount of offset but basically the same result.
I also checked my vice for for it being level and found that it was .18mm higher on the rights side, this might be the cause of the heavier cutting action on the right side. As a note I removed the vice and checked the bed over the center 8" of the bed and the difference was .005mm. This now appears to be a vice problem being here as well.
My question is what next should I do to improving the finish with a face mill?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.