I retired from the trade with 40+ years. I am a seasoned machinist, with years of manual and cnc time, as well as 13 years in management and support roles. I have made thousands of parts in my home shop. I have a tooling question. I make hundreds of the same parts monthly on my floor drill press, P-M manual and cnc vertical mills. I work entirely with grade 6061 aluminum. After nearly 4 years of making these parts I am curious if I am using too many steps in a process. I have a 1/16" deep pocket that I finish mill with a radius corner end mill. In the center of the pocket is a thru hole. I always pre-drill the hole 1/16" undersized on the drill press, then on the cnc I g83 an on size square corner carbide end mill thru to finish the bore 1" deep with a nice finish, come up and rough the pocket. I then change to my same size carbide end mill, with a 1/8" corner radius, and finish the inside diameter of the pocket. I would like to use 1 tool to do both of those operations, saving 3 minutes per part, but I worry about prematurely wearing out my radius corners on the end mill. I try to minimize my tooling budget, use quality brand uncoated carbide end mills, and run conservative chip loads, feeds and speeds. Am I overly concerned. Should I use the radius corner end mill to bore out the hole and rough/finish the pocket in one operation. I just never felt like the ground radius corners are as strong as the original square corners on end mills. I would be mad if my pocket walls have lines from wear caused by boring with the same tool. I do use coolant for boring and for washing away chips during machining. I would appreciate any input. I don't want to rush into a change that will shorten cutter life. Thank you.
