- Joined
- Apr 30, 2012
- Messages
- 2,401
A friend of mine who owns a machine shop came by yesterday. I was showing the axa indexable tool holders i had made for my lathe and he asked me to make a set of 10 cutters for his cylinder head mill because the brazed tools cost so much. i went to the shop and measured all the angles needed to use a standard ammco insert like used in a brake lathe. these inserts are pretty low cost and available at most auto parts stores. the brazed tools are about $18 each compared to a box of inserts ( 10 ) for about $25 with 6 usable surfaces. the brazed inserts cut well but are prone to shattering on interupted cuts. I made a test tool last night and took it by this morning and it worked really well. I just put the new one in above the others and ran a test cut with only it contacting. I dyechemed the cutter first and made a short pass to check contact points and everything looked good so we set at low feed and let it do the head with only one cutter and it was really smooth finish. As i made the test tool i made a jig to hold the cutters all at the same angle and distance and started machining the cutter pockets today. the outside of the pocket was cut with a 1/16 endmill the the center taken out with a 1/8. tomorrow i will drill and tap the screw holes before going any further, the screws are 4-40 so whats the chance of a problem?. i purchased a taping head a few weeks ago and it worked perfect on the test part, i'll see how i do at 10 in a row. after i drill and tap all the holes i'm will do the final pass on the pocket bottoms. if all the bottoms are good i'll make the relief cuts. this will be a good test of my knowledge of cutter geometry ( little to none ). joe didnt have a new cutter so i reground one of the old ones in the jigs that came with the machine and used it to determine the angles required. these fit in a 12" face mill.
steve
steve