Work holding and tool choice for beveling angle steel on mill

tominboise

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I am working on tooling for a home shop finger brake. I need to bevel one leg of a 3x3X1/4" A36 angle, 45deg, to create a tool with a small bend radius. I am using a PM728VT bench mill and am wondering how to hold the angle and what tool bit would be best. I have a 1" carbide face mill and various HSS end mills. If I had a Vee block, I would guess that I could use that to hold the work at 45deg and then the face mill to cut the bevel. But I do not own a vee block at this point in time. I have various fingers to bevel ranging from 2" to 9" in length.

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How exactly 45 degrees does it need to be? Would ~43-47 degrees do? If you don't need an exact 45 angle a little creative work holding should be able to get you quite close.

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How exactly 45 degrees does it need to be? Would ~43-47 degrees do? If you don't need an exact 45 angle a little creative work holding should be able to get you quite close.

View attachment 489138

View attachment 489139
It does not need to be exact, just consistent down the length of the tool. I have a 4" vise. Not sure how much I can hang out each end and not get a bad vibration.
 
It does not need to be exact, just consistent down the length of the tool. I have a 4" vise. Not sure how much I can hang out each end and not get a bad vibration.

Maybe put the apex of the angle iron into one of the slots on your mill table and clamp it to the table? Maybe a round rod inside the angle iron for extra clamping force in the center? ... am not trying to offer a perfect solution, just some ideas to spur some thought. \o/

Or Cut off some spare pieces of the angle iron and tack weld them to the ends of the angle iron for support? --> /\\/ or even /\\//\ and clamp straight down to the mill table?
 
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90 deg countersink endmill
Another vote for the 90° cutter, which will be useful on other projects and it's not expensive.

Bolt the angle right to the table (no vise), with a piece of aluminum (or whatever) under it, spacing it up just enough that the cutter can't touch the mill table.

Me, I'd use a 45° wheel cutter like this. Typically intended for horizontal mills, but you can get an R8 arbor that fits them.
45 deg. wheel cutter.jpg
The main advantage is fast metal removal. If you have a long cut to make, this will take much less time than a typical little 1/2" shank chamfer cutter. The big cutter will stay cooler and last longer, and the fat arbor is way more rigid.

The cutter I linked to is under $30 incl. shipping, but the arbor will be expensive if you don't have one, and/or don't have another use for one.

I have two arbors for cutters like that:
arbors.jpg

The one in the forground is common, generic, not too spendy. I shortened mine to be able to bring it closer to the table but as you can see the cutter needs a spacer below it and that big nut. The one in the back is a Petersen Flush arbor, super cool but spendy. I lucked into mine used, so maybe start searching for one. This one can cut dovetails.

The cutter I linked to is for dovetails I think, so in order to cut the bevel you want, you'd flip it over, and run the mill in Reverse.
 
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