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- Dec 26, 2015
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Well, you certainly don't want that kit with the arbor and all. You will want to buy the face mill and mounting bolt from Haas, and get an R8 shell mill arbor from another supplier.Is this the one David, and what arbor?
As for which type of face mill, it all depends on your specific need. I have their 2" HOP, 4" HOP, and three different 2" HRNP face mills (each outfitted with different insert grades for aluminum, steel, and stainless).
The HOP is a single-sided, high positive rake octagon insert and is ideal for surfacing material. Since the insert is 8-sided, it will leave a 45° shoulder. DOC is limited with this face mill. I just recently add the 2" version to my collection to give me more positioning flexibility on the relatively samll mill table (compared to your ACRA). Here's a demo of that 4" HOP face mill on 6061. This photo shows the shoulder it leaves (see edges of the four pads) - so the octagon style insert is not what you want if you're after a square corner shoulder. This particular part is 7075 aluminum after I had it hard anodized.
For square corner work and where you want more DOC, the HRNP style is the right choice. It will machine up to about 0.400" DOC.
Here is a video of that 2" HRNP cutting 304 SS (with inserts graded from SS). DOC is .187", WOC is 3/8", 625 RPM, 12 IPM feed rate. This is at the absolute limits of my 935 mill rigidity, but the face mill performed very well.
Here is the 2" HRNP in action on 7075 aluminum. 0.125" DOC, 20 IMP feed rate, 2800 RPM.
This is where I got all my R8 shell mill arbors - pick the one that fits your chosen face mill (the 2" takes a 3/4" arbor, the 4" takes a 1½" arbor). If you buy a 2" sized face mill from Haas, be sure to get the mounting bolt from Haas as the head diameter for the counterbore in the face mill is smaller than what you'd normally find with a 3/4" R8 arbor. That bolt is listed here.
Hope this helps. There's more info, including input from Mark in this thread.