Surface finish with negative rake carbides

[metaldestroyer]

I have been considering purchasing a set of Little Hogger 1" end mills. As the subject line indicates improved surface finish is at least one of my main objectives. Normally I machine a lot of 4140 and in the lathe I get what I consider a nice finish, but in the mill at present I use HS end mills and surface finish is not that good. I have an old mill that has too much slack to clime mill safely so I am wondering if the negative rake will help improve it. Anyone here have any experience with this?

Regards Jack

 

[Blogwitch]

Jack,

I occasionally use my 'little hogger' set, and would recommend them purely because they are great value for money, and for someone just going over to insert tooling, will give a good grounding in their use for very little outlay. Then you can decide if you want to go down the route of more expensive tooling.

Even though they have multiple cutting faces on the tips, they are very easily resharpened by use of a diamong lap, so the tips last a very long time (but only if you don't chip them).

Where you will gain is the speed at which they can be used, much faster spindle speeds than your HSS ones. So if you use the same sorts of feeds, you should (in theory) obtain better surface finishes.

One thing I personally stay well clear of, if at all possible, is climb milling. I find that if I use shallow cuts, fast cutter speeds and slow feeds I can get near mirror finishes using conventional milling techniques. I have a fairly new and large machine, but no anti backlash, even so, I only carry out climb milling when there is no other possible way around it.

A good buy


Bogs

 

[Jasonb]

I missed this post but actually picked up a set of the little hoggers today a Sandown, I mostly wanted them for cleaning up welded fabrications and hope the carbide will make light work of my poor welding with its inclusions.

Also got a MT3 x 3/4" collet for a fiver from Chester as my ERs only go upto 5/8"

Will report back how they work in a week or two

Jason